Thefts Solved in Lake Helen

First it was forged checks and then it was unsolved burglaries of jewelry, televisions, VCRs but there wasn’t any reason to connect them to one person until Andre Rhett allegedly cashed a forged check at the Gas N’ Shop. At that point Lt. Mike Walker asked proprietor Skip Morgan to call him on his cell phone if he ever saw Mr. Rhett walking around town.

On September 17th police said the Mr. Morgan made that call to Lt. Walker describing the woods where Andre Rhett was walking and added that Rhett was pulling a dolly behind him. Lt. Walker and Ofc. Brandon Mullins headed toward the home that had been burglarized previously of about $7,000 in jewelry. It seemed obvious to police that Rhett was returning to the same home for heavier items – heavy enough to require a dolly.

Lt. Walker and Ofc. Mullins parked their cars a distance from the home and walked the rest of the way so as not to be detected by Rhett. They said they watched through the fence as Rhett allegedly broke into the back door of the home. When he went to retrieve the dolly Rhett reportedly spotted the police and ran. Lt. Walker and Brandon gave chase through the woods but Rhett escaped.

Lt. Walker was able to obtain a search warrant for Rhett’s residence at 694 W. Clough as well as an arrest warrant. Inside the house the Lake Helen Police and the Volusia County Sheriff Deputies reported finding a black bag containing three rings, two sets of earrings and a gold watch lying on the floor in the living room. On the table next to the couch was another pair of gold earrings. On top of the refrigerator was a gold bracelet. A 19" Magnavox TV was found sitting on top of another television in the living room and a CD was found under
Rhett’s mattress, according to the police report.

A mother and her son identified the televisions and CD as some of the $3,000 worth of property that had been stolen from their
home a short time earlier. The following day, their neighbor identified the jewelry as hers, though some of it was still missing.

In the meantime Andre Rhett was still on the run but allegedly decided to steal a weed eater from a man’s home and pawn it at
the local pawnshop in DeLand. As Rhett walked in with the weed eater, a man yelled out, “Hey! That’s my weed eater!” Rhett
was arrested immediately by an officer of the DeLand Police Department who was also at the pawn shop.