City of Fernandina Beach Press Release
James T. Hurley, Chief
www.fbpd.us
October 22, 2015 7:27 a.m.
On Wednesday June 10, 2015 employees at the Vintage Vendors, located at 917 South 8th Street, encountered an individual they thought to be suspicious for several reasons. The man showed up at closing time with a box of antique items and attempted to sell the items to store employees. The employees declined to purchase the items and the subject soon left the area.
On Thursday June 11th store employees found the rear window broken and determined that an unknown suspect(s) had entered the business and removed several antiques of considerable value. Fernandina Beach Police officers and detectives responded to the scene and processed the scene for physical evidence. The stolen property was reportedly valued at several thousand dollars.
Investigation into this local burglary revealed that three similar burglaries had been reported in St. Johns, Duval, and Nassau Counties. Detectives from St. Johns County confirmed that the property the subject attempted to sell in Fernandina Beach had been stolen from their jurisdiction on June 5, 2015.
The suspect was described as a white male, 50’s, short blonde hair, light colored eyes, slender build, approximately 6’0”, with a possible tattoo covering his right arm to his wrist. A composite drawing of the suspect was generated based on witness accounts. Original composite is attached.
Arrest Update:
On June 17th it was determined that the burglary case in St. John’s County was directly related to this incident, as the witnesses from Vintage Vendors positively identified photographs of the property stolen from St. Augustine as being the same property the suspect was attempting to sell in Fernandina Beach. The employees at the Vintage Vendors were also able to describe the suspect’s vehicle as an older model Dodge Durango with a Colorado tag.
A suspect, Todd Allen Young, was recently arrested while driving a Dodge Durango with a stolen tag in Richmond, Virginia for selling items related to the Vintage Vendors burglary case. Richmond Police executed two search warrants for his truck and a U-Haul trailer. In those vehicles were items related to several Virginia area burglaries as well as some items identified with a Fernandina Beach, FL address. The Richmond PD detectives contacted our agency and supplied photos of the stolen property and the owners of the property were able to identify 25 items as belonging to them and lost in the burglary of June 11th at Vintage Vendors.
Fernandina Beach Detectives traveled to Richmond and collected the items as evidence in this case. Additionally, blood evidence from the Vintage Vendors burglary resulted in a DNA hit that confirmed, at a minimum, that Todd Allen Young was present during this burglary. Additional charges of Burglary and Grand theft are pending. Young is a known habitual criminal in Colorado and has a previous arrest history which includes aggravated robbery, robbery, grand theft, weapons charges, drugs, dealing in stolen property, and escape.