A South Florida man is facing grand theft and burglary charges after breaking into an auto sales shop early Friday and racing off in a stolen pick-up truck and leading police on a brief chase.
This sounds garden variety crime story until the details unfold. As they do, you really wish a savvy filmmaker would take notice. This tale could make for a crime caper.
According to Boynton Beach police, Gino Anthony Puglisi, 52, stole the keys to 60 cars from inside the office of LG Auto Sales at 724 N. Federal Hwy. He apparently used one of those keys to access a 2005 AMC Sierra truck that was for sale at $10,000, the police report said.
The chase is on
Officer Daryn Whitefield spotted Puglisi driving the stolen truck south in the 1700 block of Seacrest Boulevard and flicked on his patrol car’s lights and siren. According to Whitefield’s report, Puglisi hit the gas and gained a lead on the pursuing officer.
Given the “reckless actions of the driver,” Whitefield halted the brief chase but moments later, officers saw the Sierra had crashed into the corner of an office building at 432 W. Boynton Beach Blvd.
Puglisi, Whitefield says in his report, was seen running from the truck after a perimeter had been set up.
But Puglisi had one more card to play, so to speak.
Thrill at the grill
According to officers, Puglisi was captured in front of 416 W. Boynton Beach Blvd., “where he was pretending to grill on the porch of a first floor corner apartment.”
No word on what he was flipping on the grill — and he was a day early for a Labor Day weekend barbecue, anyhow. But officers served up handcuffs and a side of charges before trucking him off to jail where Puglisi remains held on a total bond of $6,000.
In addition to the burglary charge for breaking into the business and the vehicle theft, court records show Puglisi is also charged with resisting an officer after said officer flashed his lights, damage to property — a traffic moving violation.
Hey, Quentin Tarantino, you interested in this tale before you retire from film directing?
What the owner says was missing
According to the police report, LG Auto Sales’ owner first noticed the missing Sierra truck when he got to work around 9 a.m. Friday. The GMC truck had been parked on the west side of the parking lot.
The owner then saw that the lock on the entrance gate of the dealership compound was missing and that the gate was open.
He told officers he figured a thief had entered through a southeast door. According to the report, 60 sets of keys for cars and trucks on the lot were missing — a value he put at $20,000 to replace. A 45-inch Samsung TV, he valued at $1,500, and a Dell laptop, at $1,000, was also missing from the desk, according to the owner.
In addition, when he made his way to the rear of the business under a carport where repairs and maintenance are conducted, the owner saw that a second $1,000 Dell laptop was gone, along with about $3,000 worth of wrenches, screwdrivers and pliers.
Video surveillance showed a thin man wearing a dark baseball cap, t-shirt and shorts at about 2 a.m. walking in between the cars before leaving in the stolen GMC truck — a total estimated loss of $36,000, according to the report.
When Puglisi was found at the grill at the apartment patio he was wearing a navy baseball cap, a t-shirt and shorts as captured on the surveillance camera, according to the probable cause affidavit.
“He refused to speak to detectives regarding the incident,” Whitefield’s report reads.
All 60 vehicle keys were found in the crashed truck.