Staff report

GAINESVILLE, Fla. – Colin Sasha Dykstra, 34, was arrested yesterday after allegedly entering two apartments and rummaging through the occupants’ belongings.

At about 11:30 a.m., a Gainesville Police Department officer responded to On20 Apartments (3527 SW 20th Avenue), where an occupant of an apartment in Building 18 said a man entered her roommate’s bedroom, rummaged through her belongings, and took a credit card and some mail.

The caller said she heard a noise coming from her roommate’s bedroom, and she saw Dykstra in the living room about an hour later, searching through the couch. She said she was afraid and asked him who he was, and Dykstra asked if her roommate was there. She said she screamed for her boyfriend, who rushed out of her bedroom and confronted Dykstra, telling him to leave.

The caller said Dykstra went to the refrigerator and took three sodas before going back to her roommate’s bedroom and leaving the apartment. After leaving the apartment, Dykstra allegedly pulled the fire alarm near the entry of the apartment.

When the officer located Dykstra just north of Building 15, he was reportedly carrying one of the sodas that was taken from the apartment, and he also had mail and a credit card that belonged to the victim.

While officers were speaking with Dykstra, a second victim came out of Building 15 and said she had been gone all morning, and when she returned around noon, she found a window open in one of the bedrooms in her apartment and the room ransacked. She ran outside and contacted the officers who had just detained Dykstra.

A second can of the soda taken from the first apartment was reportedly found in the bedroom of the second apartment.

Dykstra has been charged with burglary of an occupied dwelling, burglary of an unoccupied dwelling, falsely reporting a fire, and property damage. He has two felony convictions (none violent) and four misdemeanor convictions (none violent). Judge Susan Miller-Jones set bail at $225,000.

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.