Palm Beach - A man from West Palm Beach was arrested on Thursday in connection with eight car burglaries after leaving a trail of blood at a Palm Beach neighborhood.
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Tyler Longwell, 33, faces charges of burglary, grand theft, and criminal mischief in the string of burglaries that happened in August, according to the Palm Beach Police Department.
Police officers responded to a neighborhood on Barton Avenue and A1A around 11 a.m. on Aug. 11 after a woman reported that the front window of her car was smashed, and her Gucci sunglasses and Sunpass were stolen.
The crime scene matched seven other car burglaries in the same neighborhood — three of which caught Longwell on surveillance video, and two had blood inside the vehicles, the arrest report states.
Surveillance video from the homes showed Longwell wearing a light colored hoody, light colored shorts, sneakers, and dark socks. Investigators collected blood samples from the two cars, and testing revealed the presence of Longwell’s DNA.
Officers responded to Longwell’s home in West Palm Beach on Sept. 21 with a search warrant and questioned him.
Longwell told officers that he did not recall the burglaries because of his “excessive drug use,” the police report stated. When asked about the blood in the two vehicles, Longwell said “he must have been the one responsible” but still did not recall the incident. He also said any items he took were sold to drug dealers in exchange for drugs.
Longwell remains at the Palm Beach County Jail on a $49,000 bond, according to jail records.
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