JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – A convicted thief was arrested again after police raided his Eastside home Wednesday morning, finding tens of thousands of dollars’ worth of stolen goods.
Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office burglary detectives, many working undercover, served a search warrant at his property on Spearing Street, recovered the items and helped victims retrieve them.
Guy George, 37, was booked into the Duval County jail on with three counts of grand theft and one count of burglary, according to online jail records. It’s his 11th time there.
The Eastside property is surrounded by large privacy fences. Behind them were a treasure cove of items reported stolen.
“It was issued as a result of several grand thefts, burglaries and dealing in stolen property with multiple victims,” said JSO Officer Christian Hancock. “A vast amount of stolen property was located during the search warrant to include construction equipment, trailers and sporting tents.”
Police spent the day going through the property, as a steady stream of victims came by to claim their stolen belongings.
“We contemplated on postponing the league,” said Dickson Blancas, the co-owner of a One Sports Nation youth flag football who said a trailer with almost everything his group owned, for about 150 children, was stolen on New Year’s Eve.
He said the value of the trailer and its contents was between $30,000 and $50,000.
“All the locks were on there, but the person who did it just sawed all that stuff off,” Blancas said. “He unloaded it and left the trailer behind Piccadilly.”
About half of it was found on the Spearing Street property, owned by George’s family. Police arrested him after a “lengthy” investigation, which included undercover surveillance and a search warrant.
George is no stranger to detectives or the News4Jax I-TEAM, which was at the same property in 2016 when George was arrested on grand theft after police said they found hundreds of thousands of dollars’ worth of trailers and equipment -- including a $150,000 trailer from PRI Productions. George pleaded guilty, served 3.5 years in prison and was released in January 2019.
"He’s a habitual offender who is not going to learn his lesson until he gets substantial jail time,” said News4Jax crime and safety expert Ken Jefferson.
George’s family members, including his mother, were at the home Wednesday morning when News4Jax arrived. They drove off without commenting, but News4Jax later got a chance to ask George’s sister, Kim Walker, why the stolen property was there.
“That’s all junk,” she said. “All that stuff they got out of that man’s yard was bought and paid for. They did the same thing last time.”
While his relatives live on the property, within an eyeshot of the stolen goods, no one else has been charged.
The Sky 4 helicopter showed an aerial view of what’s behind the fences: debris, tools, tents and appliances. Police believe a lot of the items were stolen.
Jonathan Garza was at the home Wednesday, looking on and talking with detectives. Garza -- who runs a Reliant Engineered Products with his father, Jim -- said he believes George stole their company’s utility trailer, as the SUV and man from their surveillance video matched George’s description. After reporting the incident to police and posting pictures on Facebook, Garza visited the Spearing Street property. He noticed the SUV out front and flew a drone over the home, finding what he suspected to be his trailer. He gave that information to detectives.
“My trailer wasn’t that expensive, but at the end of the day, it’s my trailer, not his,” Garza said. “It’s frustrating.”
He thanked the police and noted that his father’s persistence and tenacity likely helped with the case. He said his family was appalled to learn George had served prison time for grand theft before. “That’s the crazy part about it,” Garza added.
Jefferson said this is a case of good police work, but the victims need credit, too.
“Everything was done properly with the victims,” he said. “They reported their items missing. They gave a great description, provided the needed information.”