Irma cleanup crew convicted of burglary. Defendants said they took moldy items.
In January 2018, people in the Florida Keys were still in the beginning stages of recovering from Hurricane Irma, a devastating Category 4 storm that struck four months earlier.
Along with residents and tourists, the Keys were full of out-of-town workers doing repair and cleanup jobs. While most were welcome and law-abiding, some were not.
A six-person jury Thursday convicted two Homestead men who prosecutor Gail Conolly said fall into the latter category.
Jorge Rubio, 37, and Michael Chavez, 23, each face up to 15 years in prison on burglary and petit theft charges when they’re scheduled to go before Monroe County Circuit Court Judge Luis Garcia on March 30.
The men were part of a crew cleaning up storm-damaged units at the Ocean Pointe Condominiums in Tavernier, said Larry Kahn, spokesman for the Monroe County State Attorney’s Office.
One of the units had a sign on the front door stating, “No remediation required. Do not remove furniture,” Kahn said in a press release, but the men went in anyway on Jan. 16, 2018.
Chavez, who was a crew supervisor, had master keys to most of the units in the building. He and Rubio entered the unit and were seen on the owner’s security camera rummaging through his belongings. The computerized system alerted the owner, and he called the building manager, who caught them leaving the apartment.
Among the items Rubio and Chavez left with was a Nintendo Wii gaming system. On the security camera audio, Rubio was recorded saying that his kids will love it and that he’d be playing it in his “crib tonight,” according to the press release. At that point, Chavez is seen noticing the camera and turning it away before he unplugged it.
When sheriff’s deputies asked the men if they took items from the unit, they said they did, but only because they thought they had mold on them, Kahn said.
This story was originally published February 1, 2020 at 6:00 AM.
