Florida man is serial thief stealing personal info from cars, Lexington sheriff says
A Florida man is being held in a South Carolina jail after he was arrested for breaking into cars and stealing personal identification information, the Lexington County Sheriff’s Department said Thursday in a news release.
When he was arrested, sheriff’s deputies recovered “personal items and documents from multiple car break-ins” after searching the house where Eugene Christopher Washington was staying, according to the news release.
“Washington had more than two dozen Social Security numbers, driver’s licenses and victim bank account information,” Lexington County Sheriff Jay Koon said in the news release.
According to arrest warrants, the 33-year-old Florida resident is charged with six counts of larceny from a motor vehicle and one count of identity fraud, the sheriff’s department said.
The sheriff’s office said Washington is suspected in a string of car break-ins across the Midlands.
“Based on what Washington told investigators, he hit multiple areas around Lexington County including Chapin, Columbia, Irmo and Lexington,” Koon said in the news release. “Our work on those cases is ongoing.”
Deputies identified Washington after receiving a tip from a resident who was reporting a suspected car break-in, Koon said in the news release.
“Deputies acted on that tip and eventually located Washington and the car the resident saw him driving away in,” he said.
Washington is being held in the Lexington County Detention Center, and his bond was set at $165,000, according to the news release.
This story was originally published April 4, 2019 at 4:31 PM with the headline "Florida man is serial thief stealing personal info from cars, Lexington sheriff says."
