Police capture serial pandemic burglary suspect who targeted business vending machines
A 61-year-old man has been wreaking havoc with a crowbar the past two months, causing extensive damage up and down the city’s main business corridor, while mostly breaking into vending machines of closed businesses and walking away with relatively little in cash and property, Miami police said.
Just in Miami alone, police say, the serial burglar broke into at least eight different businesses that have been closed during the pandemic — banks, a museum, luxury condos — and caused more than $20,000 in damage, while making off with $2,674 in cash, food, cigarettes and water.
On Friday, more than two weeks after David Sharon was identified through surveillance video, and after leaving a string of wounded vending machines up an down Brickell Avenue and Biscayne Boulevard behind, he was finally taken into custody by the department’s Downtown Problem Solving Team. Police, who said Sharon is homeless, know him well, mostly for break-ins over the years of vending machines on private property
“You can see there’s a pattern,” said MIami Police Detective Kiara Delva. “He targets various machines for snacks and money.”
Sharon has been charged with multiple counts of petit theft, criminal mischief and burglary to an unoccupied structure.
Miami police said Sharon began his recent onslaught on March 30 at the city’s Passport Agency at 1501 Biscayne Blvd. where he caused as much as $6,000 in damage and walked with $250 from a vending machine. Next, was a break-in five days later at the Icon Bay Condominium at 460 NE 28th St., where he caused $8,500 damage and found $200 after breaking into another vending machine.
On April 22, police said Sharon broke into another condo on Brickell Avenue and two days later on April 24, surveillance video captured him breaking into Chase Bank at 150 SW Second Ave., through its parking garage. This time he only got away with $100, police said, while causing $300 in damage.
On April 26, police said Sharon broke into a condo on Brickell Bay Drive and stole $5 in coins. The next day, police said Sharon broke into the Kimpton EPIC Hotel at 270 Biscayne Blvd., and stole money and food from a vending machine.
Two days later on April 29, police believe Sharon altered his method, breaking into the Four Seasons Hotel on Brickell Avenue and walking away with $969 worth of cigarettes.
Then a lull. Police have no evidence of Sharon breaking and entering a property over the 11 days.
But that came to an end on May 10, police said, when surveillance video showed the suspect prying open an ATM at a very public location, the Phillip and Patricia Frost Art Museum. There, police said, Sharon broke open an ATM and stole three bottles of water, a black book bag and 100 pieces of metal jewelry, worth a total of about $1,000.
Delva said police finally tracked Sharon down after receiving a tip. When the officer finally confronted Sharon, Delva said, he recognized him immediately.
“He had encounters with him in the past,” she said.
