Staff report

GAINESVILLE, Fla. – Tremel Hopkins, 23, was arrested early this morning on a warrant for car burglary after he was pulled over for a non-working headlight.

At about 2:39 a.m. on December 24, an Alachua County Sheriff’s Deputy conducted a traffic stop in Tower Oaks on a car with a non-working headlight; Hopkins was reportedly the driver. The officer cited Hopkins for driving without a valid license and arrested him on a 2022 warrant for car burglary.

On July 3, 2022, the victim reported to a Gainesville Police Department officer that she had parked her car at Boulware Springs Park before going for a walk; when she returned about 35 minutes later, she found that her glove compartment and center console were open and her purse was missing. The victim reported several fraudulent charges to the officer, and he followed up at the stores.

Two transactions were at the Green Apple liquor store, about 40 minutes after the robbery was discovered. Surveillance video of the cash register area clearly showed a man and a woman, and surveillance video of the parking lot showed the car they had been driving.

The car’s tag led the officer to the woman’s house, and she reportedly agreed to tell the officer what happened in exchange for a sworn complaint instead of being arrested. She reportedly identified the man as Hopkins, and the officer reported that his identity was easily confirmed with his state identification photo.

The woman said Hopkins had called her that day and asked her to pick him up at Boulware Springs; after they “smoked some weed,” he gave her the victim’s credit cards and asked her to make purchases. She said she had no involvement in the car burglary and didn’t look at the name on the cards, but “in hindsight, she should have realized they were probably stolen due to the circumstances.”

The woman said that after they went to several stores, she dropped Hopkins off at Tower Oaks. No charges related to this incident have been filed in the court system against the woman.

The officer reported that he was unable to contact Hopkins and that the woman said after she told Hopkins she had spoken with the police, he hung up and blocked her phone number, then erased his social media. She said he was “bouncing around” and staying with friends.

The officer filed a sworn complaint against Hopkins, formal charges were filed in August 2022, and Judge Phillip Pena signed an arrest warrant a few weeks later.

Hopkins has been charged with driving without a valid license, burglary of an unoccupied vehicle, fraudulent use of a credit card, and petit theft. He is being held on $22,500 bail, the amount set by Judge Pena on the warrant.

Articles about arrests are based on reports from law enforcement agencies. The charges listed are taken from the arrest report and/or court records and are only accusations. All suspects are innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.