Alert dog walker helps APD make vehicle burglary arrests

Rebecca Blumenstein was walking her dog on Vicks Landing Drive last Wednesday morning when she saw two teenagers near her neighbor's car. One of the boys was inside the car and the other standing outside. When they saw her they ran between the houses and and jumped though a gap in a chain link fence.

Blumenstein called 911 and gave the dispatcher a description of the boys. Blumenstein did not know who lived in the house, but she knocked on the door and told her neighbor, Donnie Wilkes, what she had observed. Wilkes had just arrived home with his son. "I was in the house for maybe five minutes," said Wilkes.

Several Apopka Police Officers responded to the 911 call.

The boys, aged 14 and 16, were apprehended by Apopka Police near Apopka High School. One of the boys had a Casio watch in his possession. Wilkes later confirmed the watch was his.

The teenagers were taken to the Apopka Police Department where, after being read their Miranda Rights, one admitted to entering Wilkes' unlocked car and taking the watch. The other admitted to standing outside the car during the burglary.

During the interviews both boys admitted to involvement in previous burglaries.

Both were charged with vehicle burglary and transported to the Orange County Juvenile Assessment Center.

Donnie Wilkes was glad to get his watch back, but wants the chain link fence behind his house repaired so students will stop using it as a shortcut.

"It has been that way for a couple of years," Wilkes told The Apopka Voice. "I wish they would fix that."

Wilkes went on to describe how students use the gap in the fence as a shortcut. He has even seen parents drop their students off in front of his house before school so they can use the shortcut.