An attempted burglary in a quiet Port St. Lucie neighborhood ended in an arrest Saturday night after a police K-9 helped track the suspect within 20 minutes.Just after 8:30 p.m., Port St. Lucie police were dispatched to a burglary in progress in the 200 block of Southeast Village Drive in the Fountains residential community.The homeowner had returned from work and found an unfamiliar man inside the home, prompting a 911 call. The suspect fled before officers arrived, but the homeowner was able to provide police with a detailed description and surveillance video.Sergeant Dominick Mesiti, public information officer with the police department, said, “She basically said, ‘Who are and what are you doing here?’ and his answer to her was that he lived there and she’s like, ‘No you don’t, this is my house,” and at that point he exited the house.”Your neighborhood: Local coverage from WPBF 25 NewsPolice identified the suspect as 34-year-old Jarred Seymour, of Arkansas. He was located and arrested in an alley near the residence with the help of K-9 Officer Robbie Gibbons and his dog, K-9 Ronin, whom Gibbons calls his “Maligator.”“I was sitting on the couch, my wife was sitting next to me, and next thing you know, I just heard get down, get on the ground, don’t move, don’t move,” said neighbor Steve Morante. “And we looked out a window and we saw three police officers with a K-9.”Morante, who lives near the alley where Seymour was caught, said the response was swift.Get the latest news updates with the WPBF 25 News app. You can download it here.“It was between 10, 15, 20 minutes by the time the call went out,” he said. “They must have been looking for this guy for something already because you might have been a person of interest for something else.”Officer Gibbons says they train patrol dogs to search for a human scent. “We’re looking for the freshest human scent leaving the area outside of where anybody would’ve been and the dog is able to locate that scent and follow it along until he finds the source of that scent, which would be the suspect that we’re looking for,” Mesiti adds, “They’re dual certified dogs, which means they’re patrol dogs for apprehension and they’re both certified in narcotics, odor detection.” According to police, nothing was stolen or damaged inside the home, but in cases like these where a violent felony offense is happening, K9 units are always deployed. “K-9s are an invaluable tool; they’re able to do things that we could never do. Their sense of smell is approximately 44 times greater than ours, and they’re able to pick up so much, small amounts. They can track human odor, they can find articles of evidence left behind by the suspect who threw them. We can search a building without putting officers in danger,” said Gibbons. Longtime residents expressed shock at the incident.“I’ve been here 30 years in this condominium, and this never happened,” said neighbor Josephine Marciano.Police said no injuries were reported, and the incident appears to be isolated. Investigators believe Seymour is homeless as the arrest affidavit states, “Jarred had no personal belongings on him besides the clothes he was wearing and an expired Arkansas driver’s license.” Seymour told police he was in an addiction recovery center here in Florida before explaining he was homeless. He was taken into custody, facing charges of burglary, and is being held at the St. Lucie County Jail. Top Headlines:Several students taken to hospital after school bus crash in Okeechobee
PORT ST. LUCIE, Fla. —
An attempted burglary in a quiet Port St. Lucie neighborhood ended in an arrest Saturday night after a police K-9 helped track the suspect within 20 minutes.
Just after 8:30 p.m., Port St. Lucie police were dispatched to a burglary in progress in the 200 block of Southeast Village Drive in the Fountains residential community.
The homeowner had returned from work and found an unfamiliar man inside the home, prompting a 911 call. The suspect fled before officers arrived, but the homeowner was able to provide police with a detailed description and surveillance video.
Sergeant Dominick Mesiti, public information officer with the police department, said, “She basically said, ‘Who are and what are you doing here?’ and his answer to her was that he lived there and she’s like, ‘No you don’t, this is my house,” and at that point he exited the house.”
Your neighborhood: Local coverage from WPBF 25 News
Police identified the suspect as 34-year-old Jarred Seymour, of Arkansas. He was located and arrested in an alley near the residence with the help of K-9 Officer Robbie Gibbons and his dog, K-9 Ronin, whom Gibbons calls his “Maligator.”
“I was sitting on the couch, my wife was sitting next to me, and next thing you know, I just heard get down, get on the ground, don’t move, don’t move,” said neighbor Steve Morante. “And we looked out a window and we saw three police officers with a K-9.”
Morante, who lives near the alley where Seymour was caught, said the response was swift.
Get the latest news updates with the WPBF 25 News app. You can download it here.
“It was between 10, 15, 20 minutes by the time the call went out,” he said. “They must have been looking for this guy for something already because you might have been a person of interest for something else.”
Officer Gibbons says they train patrol dogs to search for a human scent.
“We’re looking for the freshest human scent leaving the area outside of where anybody would’ve been and the dog is able to locate that scent and follow it along until he finds the source of that scent, which would be the suspect that we’re looking for,” Mesiti adds, “They’re dual certified dogs, which means they’re patrol dogs for apprehension and they’re both certified in narcotics, odor detection.”
According to police, nothing was stolen or damaged inside the home, but in cases like these where a violent felony offense is happening, K9 units are always deployed.
“K-9s are an invaluable tool; they’re able to do things that we could never do. Their sense of smell is approximately 44 times greater than ours, and they’re able to pick up so much, small amounts. They can track human odor, they can find articles of evidence left behind by the suspect who threw them. We can search a building without putting officers in danger,” said Gibbons.
Longtime residents expressed shock at the incident.
“I’ve been here 30 years in this condominium, and this never happened,” said neighbor Josephine Marciano.
Police said no injuries were reported, and the incident appears to be isolated. Investigators believe Seymour is homeless as the arrest affidavit states, “Jarred had no personal belongings on him besides the clothes he was wearing and an expired Arkansas driver’s license.”
Seymour told police he was in an addiction recovery center here in Florida before explaining he was homeless. He was taken into custody, facing charges of burglary, and is being held at the St. Lucie County Jail.
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Several students taken to hospital after school bus crash in Okeechobee