After eight months of searching, local authorities found an accused truck thief in Florida and brought him back to face charges in Putnam County.
Around 5:30 a.m. on July 20, a man later identified as Ismael Monzon-Turino, who was believed to be accompanied by several other unknown individuals, stole an almost new Kenworth Tractor Trailer truck from Rebel Auction on Friendship Road beside U.S. Hwy. 441.
The truck was valued at $225,000 and the flatbed trailer attached to it was another $100,000, according to Putnam County Sheriff Howard Sills.
“After an extensive investigation using Flock cameras and other security cameras, we identified him, found him and arrested him,” Sills said.
The night of the theft, the flatbed trailer was abandoned on the side of the road a few miles from the auction business. The truck itself had a tracking device on it, which made it easy to locate later when it was abandoned at a truck stop in Dublin, Sills said. Security video footage from the truck stop helped them identify Monzon-Turino.
But the longer Sills and his detectives searched, the more complicated the case became.
They learned that Monzon-Turino was in the country illegally and there was an ICE hold on him.
“When he (Monzon-Turino) came to Putnam County, he was driving a 2006 Ford Super Duty pickup that was reported stolen in Auburn, Georgia the day before,” Sills said.
Authorities have not located that truck.
But they put out a BOLO for Monzon-Turino and later learned that after his Putnam County escapade, he was arrested in Brantley County for another vehicle theft.
“He ended up in jail there, but for some reason, we weren’t notified,” Sills said. “And then later, a trooper arrested him in Ocala, Florida for probation violation, but he refused extradition and we had to get a governor’s warrant for him.
“I just don’t understand how people like this get out on bond and get arrested in other places and then are let out again to continue their criminal activity,” Sills added.
The sheriff opines that, according to reports from other cities and towns where Monzon-Turino has been arrested or known to have been, Sills believes he is part of a group that’s stealing trucks all over the country.
Monzon-Turino was arrested on March 25 and is being held without bond in Putnam County jail on charges of theft by taking and theft by receiving stolen property.