GAINESVILLE, Fla. – Joshua Robert Spirit, 36, is facing charges in connection with two alleged thefts from a local air conditioning company, where authorities say more than $5,400 worth of materials were stolen and later pawned.
Employees at Charles Berg Heating & Air first noticed items missing from a fenced area on August 18. After checking surveillance footage, they saw a white male walking around the property, but the incident was not reported to law enforcement at that time.
A second discovery came on August 24, when employees again found property missing. Surveillance video reportedly showed a white male, later identified as Spirit, entering the property from a wooded area through an opening in the fence at about 1:30 a.m. Over the next 20-plus minutes, the man used a flashlight while moving around the site, collecting “numerous” items and either throwing them over the fence or pulling them through the opening. The stolen property included copper wiring and a large air conditioning unit coil/radiator, with an estimated value of $5,000.
Following that incident, the company installed trail cameras near the gap in the fence and contacted neighboring businesses to ask for surveillance footage. One nearby business reportedly provided video showing Spirit arriving in a vehicle.
At about 3:45 a.m. on August 28, cameras at the neighboring business reportedly captured Spirit arriving in a small Toyota sedan. Minutes later, at 4:03 a.m., cameras at Charles Berg allegedly showed him squeezing through the same fence opening and stealing pieces of assorted metals. Employees could not provide an exact value for the items taken in that incident, but estimated the loss at about $400.
The trail camera clearly showed Spirit’s shoes, khaki cargo shorts, graphic tee, beard, and glasses.
A detective at Alachua Police Department (APD) has been working on a separate burglary investigation involving Spirit as a suspect, and she immediately identified the white male as Spirit, along with noting that Spirit drives a red Toyota sedan that is registered to his ex-girlfriend; the owner of the Toyota reportedly said Spirit normally drives the vehicle.
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Spirit was pulled over by APD in the red Toyota on July 16, and a photo from that encounter reportedly shows the same cargo shirts and shoes that were seen in the surveillance video at Charles Berg. Spirit reportedly denied any involvement in APD’s investigation, and he was released at the scene.
The Gainesville Police Department investigation of the Charles Berg thefts reportedly found two pawn transactions in Spirit’s name: just after the August 24 burglary, 68 pounds of scrap metal were sold for $210.65. On the same day as the August 28 burglary, 53 pounds of scrap metal were sold for $195.98.
Automated License Plate Reader (ALPR) and Flock cameras reportedly show Spirit’s vehicle arriving and leaving just before and after both burglaries.
Spirit, who is described as homeless in a court document, has been charged with two counts of burglary of an unoccupied structure, two counts of dealing in stolen property, grand theft, and theft. He has four felony convictions (non-violent) and four misdemeanor convictions (one violent); he has served one state prison sentence and was released in 2013. He was arrested last November after taking his 6-year-old child with him to shoplift and then leaving the child unattended when he ran from police officers; he was initially charged with child abuse without great bodily harm, child neglect without great bodily harm, resisting recovery of property by a merchant, resisting an officer without violence, and theft, but he eventually entered a plea of nolo contendere to the last three charges, served six months in jail, and was released in April.
Judge Lua Lepianka set bail at $270,000 on the new charges.