The Sumter County Sheriff’s Office used the power of social media to track down a suspect in a pair of vehicle burglaries.
The post, which was put up Wednesday, led to the positive identification of the suspect within a couple of hours and a subsequent arrest that same evening.
Deputies on Wednesday arrested Joseph Anthony Rossi, 20, of Webster, for committing two vehicle burglaries, stealing items from within the vehicles, and even using one of the victim’s credit cards at numerous businesses within both Sumter and Citrus counties.
Both victims reported that during the overnight hours of Dec. 14 their vehicles, which had been left unlocked and parked at their residence within the city limits of Bushnell, had been burglarized. As a result, both of their purses were stolen. The purses had contained Florida driver’s licenses, cash, various gift cards and credit cards.
One of the victims soon after learned that her Suncoast Credit Union credit card had been fraudulently used at various gas stations within both Sumter and Citrus counties during the early morning hours of Dec. 15. Video surveillance footage showed Rossi using the victim’s credit card.
In an interview conducted by a detective with the Sumter County Sheriff’s Office’s Criminal Investigations Division, Rossi admitted to the detective that he used the credit card which he knew did not belong to him to purchase gasoline at several businesses.
He had no previous criminal record.
