August 27 – Florida Man Arrested For Stealing Construction Materials While Delivering Mail

A 39-year-old resident employee of the United States Postal Service was arrested by deputies from the Lee County Sheriff’s Office after he was caught stealing cement blocks, rebar, and masonry stakes from residential construction sites in Lehigh Acres. According to a news segment aired by WBBH Channel 2, the main NBC affiliate in Fort Myers, Cristian Huarte pretended to deliver and collect mail from addresses that were still under construction, but the homes under construction did not yet have mailboxes, and they were not part of his postal route.

Huarte had been stealing blocks, rebar, mortar mix, and other construction materials from the eastern districts of Lehigh Acres for some time before his arrest. The owner of Green Sun Homes, a Southwest Florida home builder, had noticed missing materials from two sites near the Savannah Lakes expansion project, so he installed internet-connected security cameras to monitor the situation. The security system alerted the owner’s wife of a site breach, so she drove to the spot and found a mail truck parked outside.

The mailman was caught on video loading bags of mortar mix onto the USPS delivery vehicle when confronted by the woman. Huarte unloaded the bags from his truck and drove to another home construction site across the street; he then reached into the back and unloaded blocks and rebar he had stolen from that spot, which was not being developed by Green Sun Home. Once he was done unloading, he asked the woman to not tell anyone about what she had seen.

Huarte was arrested on two counts of grand theft. Most of the stolen materials were recovered and returned to Green Sun Homes and another builder. A statement from USPS confirmed that Huarte had been working as a carrier for more than six months when he was arrested.

See Also:

• Florida Man Chronicle – August 26
• Florida Man Report – August 25
• Florida Man Headlines – August 24

August 27 – Intoxicated Florida Man Arrested After Assaulting His Father

Eric Carl Blom, a 55-year-old Florida man with a long history of arrests, was arrested after holding a kitchen knife to his father’s throat and trying to steal a car. The incident unfolded at a home in Summerfield where police officers had previously responded to criminal situations that Blom is always involved in.

According to a news segment aired by WFTV, an ABC affiliate in Orlando, Blom was drunk and seemingly under the influence of methamphetamine when he was arrested by deputies from the Sumter County Sheriff’s Office. For this reason, his father refused to let him drive, so Blom became irate and assaulted him while trying to grab the car keys. Blom eventually held his father at knifepoint and took the keys. In the past, people close to Blom’s parents noticed that he had posted Facebook updates indicating that he wanted to kill his parents for not helping him in his last two arrests. His father did not allow him to return home after he failed to complete an alcoholism recovery program.

Blom somehow ended up at the hospital after stealing his father’s car. Deputies noted in their affidavit that he was visibly intoxicated and confused about other warrants he had for theft, assault, and robbery. The vehicle was located and returned to his father. In the 12 months before this latest incident, Blom had spent three months in jail serving sentences for two arrests, including one in Marion County where he was found in a wooded area after ditching a stolen car because he felt he was going through a severe allergic reaction to methamphetamine.