Man arrested for copper wire theft

A 32-year-old Hialeah, Florida man was arrested Saturday for stealing more than 600 pounds of copper wire worth approximately $1,000 from government property in Key Largo earlier this year.

Maikel Ramos Jimenez was charged with grand theft and trespassing.

Sheriff’s Office Detective Edward Askins began investigating in August when a U.S. Homeland Security Investigations Special Agent provided him with surveillance camera images of several individuals trespassing between February and April at the old and shuttered-to-the-public U.S. Army Nike Hercules radar site located inside Dagny Johnson Key Largo Hammock Botanical State Park off County Road 905 in Upper Key Largo. The Special Agent also provided the identity of the owners of two vehicles seen at the property. One of the vehicles, a Ford F-150® pickup truck, was registered to Jimenez.

Detective Askins contacted his colleagues at Miami-Dade Police and asked if Jimenez had sold anything at local scrap yards in Miami-Dade County. He had. A scrap yard provided all the transactional history with Jimenez for the copper wire. An employee there identified Jimenez from a photo lineup.

Warrants were issued for Jimenez’s arrest.

Jimenez was booked into jail on Saturday.