Marathon teen arrested for multiple burglaries

Marathon – An 18 year old Marathon man was arrested Sunday, charged with burglarizing two vehicles and a home in his own neighborhood.

A woman who lives on 5^th Avenue gulf-side called the Sheriff’s Office at 5:30 a.m. Sunday. She said she’d gotten home around 5 a.m. from a party; she’d left her door open, and was getting ready to go to sleep. She said she walked into her kitchen and saw someone standing by her table. When she confronted him, he ran out of the house. She later realized her purse was gone from the table. She described him as a young white male with blonde hair.

Later that morning, she told her daughter what happened. Her daughter thought she knew who the suspect might be. She got a picture of 18 year old Aric Jenks from his Facebook page and showed it to her mother. Her mother identified Jenks as the man she saw in her kitchen.

That same morning, the Sheriff’s Office received reports of two vehicle burglaries in the same neighborhood. One victim, who lives on 5^th Avenue Gulf, reported two vehicles burglarized; in one, she’d found a phone on the seat that did not belong to anyone in her family. She also reported cash and several blue condoms stolen from one of the vehicles. The second victim, who lives on the same street, reported someone stole a large number of items from the back of his truck, including dive equipment, fishing equipment, a bicycle and vehicle stereo components.

After reporting his truck burglarized, the second victim began checking the neighborhood for his stolen items. He looked into a white  Volvo parked in the front yard of the house where Jenks lives. In the vehicle, on the back seat,  was some of his stolen stereo equipment. He called the Sheriff’s Office again to report finding his belongings.

Deputies responded to the location. They met with Jenks, his father and his brother. Detectives also responded to the scene. They were given permission to search the vehicle, and Jenks’ bedroom inside the house. They found a large amount of the items stolen from the burglaries both in the car and in the house, including the stolen blue condoms. The purse stolen during the residential burglary was found in a garbage can at the house. The phone, found in one of the burglarized vehicles, turned out to belong to Jenks. During interviews with Jenks, he admitted to committing the crimes. He told deputies he couldn’t give them many details because he was drunk when he committed the crimes and didn’t remember all of what he’d done.

Jenks was arrested. He was charged with three counts of burglary, two counts of theft and one count of grand theft. He was booked into jail. The recovered stolen items will be returned to the owners.