- September 7, 2024
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A Palm Coast woman was outside her Ferris Lane home at about 3:50 a.m. Oct. 7 when she heard a male voice nearby. When she entered her garage moments later, her $800 Ryobi generator was missing and the screen door was ajar, according to a Flagler County Sheriff's Office report.
The woman got in her car and started searching the neighborhood, and noticed a white van speeding away from the area.
She told deputies that a man who'd identified himself as Jason Daly had asked her several weeks before if he could use the generator, and she'd turned him down, according to the report.
Deputies looked up Daly and found that he owned a white van. A search of area pawn shops turned up the generator: It was at Palm Coast Cash & Pawn.
The victim had called the shop immediately after the theft to see if it was there, and it had not been. But shortly after, Daly had arrived at the pawn shop with the generator and tried to sell it. A shop employee asked him if it was stolen, and he produced a fraudulent receipt for it, leading the shop to accept it, according to the report.
“This is a great example of good police work and an observant victim,” Sheriff Rick Staly said in an FCSO news release. “This guy felt entitled to someone else’s property and he will just steal whatever he wants. I am happy that we were able to return the stolen merchandise to the victim within a few hours and that this thief was booked in to the Green Roof Inn where he belongs. This is also a reminder to residents to always keep their garage doors closed. Screen doors are not a substitute for a solid door.”
Daly was arrested and taken to the Sheriff Perry Hall Inmate Detention Facility on charges of burglary of an occupied dwelling, grand theft from a dwelling, false verification of ownership and dealing in stolen property, according to the news release.