He’s accused of stealing copper from abandoned Keys missile site
Florida Keys police arrested a Hialeah man on charges he stole hundreds of pounds of copper wiring from an abandoned U.S. Army missile site in Key Largo.
Maikel Ramos Jimenez, 32, was arrested on a warrant Saturday and is being held in Monroe County jail on a bond of $12,500.
Sheriff’s office deputies say he stole around 600 pounds of wiring worth about $1,000, according to an agency press release.
The thefts happened between February and April at the Army’s old Nike Hercules radar site located within Dagny Johnson Key Largo Botanical State Park off County Road 905. The facility has been closed to the public since the government ended the air defense program in 1979.
A U.S. Department of Homeland Security Investigations agent in August provided a sheriff’s office detective security camera photos of several people entering the property.
The agent also provided the names of the owners of two vehicles seen on the property in the time frame of the copper thefts.
One was Jimenez, according to the press release.
Detective Edward Askins asked Miami-Dade County Police Department officers if there are any records of Jimenez selling copper wiring to scrap yards on the mainland. There were, and a scrap yard employee picked Jimenez out of a photo lineup, sheriff’s office spokesman Adam Linhardt said.
He faces a felony grand theft charge, as well as misdemeanor trespassing.
This story was originally published November 18, 2019 at 3:49 PM.
