The Monroe County Sheriff’s Office arrested a Marathon man on Monday after he damaged his employer’s boat and then stole numerous tools and pawned them.
On June 5, deputies met with the employer, who reported that Timothy Brown, 40, had been hired several months ago to restore vessels at the Keys Boat Works. According to the report, Brown was the only person with a key to the tool storage area and to the boat that was damaged. The owner left town near the beginning of May and had just returned, but none of the neighboring workers reported recently seeing Brown.
The owner provided a list of tools stolen to deputies, estimating the loss to be around $7,970. He also stated that Brown destroyed the bathroom on the boat by using it, despite the bathroom being inoperable and not fully installed. He was able to provide photos that showed fecal matter and urine in the toilet, which ruined the system since no pipes were installed yet. He also was able to show that the shower stall liner was ripped and cracked. The owner estimated the damages to the boat would cost approximately $11,000. He also stated that Brown was aware that the bathroom was not fully installed.
The owner also specified that the tools had a distinctive “gel coat” on them, from the tools being used to work on the boat. The initial investigation by MCSO revealed that Brown pawned several tools in May between Joe’s Pawn Shop in Marathon and Molly’s Pawn Shop in Big Pine Key. In each instance, Brown completed a pawn transaction form using his driver’s license and fingerprints.
Deputies were unable to locate Brown at the time of the initial report, but they were able to arrest him on Monday.
Brown was charged with nine counts of fraud, nine counts of selling stolen property, one count of damaging property with $1,000 or more of damage and one count of larceny. He was transported to the Monroe County Detention Facility, where he is being held on a bond of $120,000.
Information in the Crime Report is obtained from reports provided by area law enforcement agencies.
If you have information that could help solve a crime in the Florida Keys, call Crime Stoppers, 800-346-TIPS.