DELTONA, FL – A burglary suspect wearing an ankle monitor following his arrest for a past Seminole County burglary was tracked down and arrested after he committed another burglary in Deltona – stealing guns, ammunition, electronics, cash and the victim’s car while his ankle monitor tracked his location all along the way.
Shamoule J. Bridges, 28, of Apopka, was arrested early this morning in Orange County and is being held on charges out of Volusia and Lake County, where he’s the suspect in yet another burglary and theft case, also while wearing his court-ordered ankle monitor. His criminal history includes 41 prior felony charges with four convictions and nine misdemeanor charges with four convictions.
“Ankle monitors are nice, but obviously they won’t stop a prolific criminal from breaking into your home, stealing your guns and taking off in your car,” Sheriff Mike Chitwood said Thursday of Bridges’ arrest. “I hope the next judge who sees him thinks twice before setting him loose on all of us in Central Florida yet again.”
The Deltona burglary happened last Friday, September 17, on Kingsdale Drive, where the victim came home in the afternoon to find his garage door wide open and his Honda Accord missing. The victim found his door was broken in, saw drawers ajar throughout the house, and discovered 6 handguns missing along with six boxes of ammunition, two 55-inch televisions, other electronics and cash.
Using surveillance cameras and tag readers, detectives were able to track the stolen Accord to Orange and Polk counties. A second vehicle, a blue 2002 Toyota Corolla, was also seen leaving the residence after the burglary. Working with a Seminole County Sheriff’s Office crime analyst, detectives were able to establish Bridges as a possible suspect in that vehicle.
When Seminole’s crime analyst checked the GPS coordinates from Bridges’ ankle monitor, it placed him at the exact location of the burglary on that afternoon.
Detectives contacted the registered owner of the Corolla, a Deltona woman whose 17-year-old daughter who admitted she drove Bridges to a house in Deltona, where he went inside for about 20 minutes before coming out driving the victim’s car.
Detectives later recovered the victim’s photo scanner/printer from the 17-year-old’s home, where the mother told detectives her daughter gifted it to her, claiming she got it from a friend.
The victim’s Honda Accord was recovered in Apopka on Tuesday night when Orange County deputies tracked it down and arrested a 20-year-old suspect, Paul Perkins at the wheel. None of the guns, ammunition, TVs, cash or other electronics were recovered. A search warrant is pending on the Corolla to determine if any stolen items are in it.
In addition to his pending charges in other counties, Volusia detectives charged Bridges with armed burglary, six counts of grand theft of a firearm, grand theft of a motor vehicle, grand theft and possession of a firearm by a convicted felon.
Bridges’ ankle monitor was a condition of his release in a pending 2018 burglary case in Seminole County. In addition to that case, Bridges was charged with carjacking in Orange County, where he was in jail until his release earlier this year.