ORLANDO, Fla. – An Orange County man has been sentenced after being arrested and linked to a couple of gun store burglaries.
According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Florida, Judge Wendy W. Berger sentenced Jeremy Middleton, 25, of Apopka, to three years and 10 months in federal prison for possession of stolen firearms.
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Court documents state on Jan. 4, 2023, Middleton broke into a gun store in Melbourne and breached the back door with what appeared to be a grinder and a hammer. Surveillance video at the time showed Middleton walking out with the firearms stuffed in a black trash bag, according to a news release.
Then, a couple days later on Jan. 6, investigators said Middleton attempted to break into a gun store in Clearwater, but was disrupted by law enforcement and arrested. Two of the firearms stolen from the gun store in Melbourne were recovered in Middleton’s vehicle, and 11 other stolen firearms were recovered from a trash bag in the yard at Middleton’s residence, the attorney’s office said.
The case was investigated by a number of agencies including the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, Osceola County Sheriff’s Office, Melbourne Police Department, Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office and Apopka police.
The attorney’s office said the case is part of the 2021 program Project Safe Neighborhoods (PSN), billed as an initiative bringing together all levels of law enforcement and the communities they serve to reduce violent crime and gun violence.
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