Palm Coast, FL - A pair of porch pirates are facing multiple felony charges after two surveillance cameras caught one of them stealing from homes in Palm Coast's "K" section.
On Monday (February 9th), deputies with the Flagler County Sheriff's Office (FCSO) were called to a home on Kalamazoo Trail after receiving reports of a woman who stole packages from someone's doorstep. The homeowner spoke to deputies shortly after and told them she had video from a Ring doorbell camera of the suspect, who was later identified as 26-year-old Kimberly Dowdy, taking the packages from the home.
Hours later, deputies received another call for a package theft on Kashmir Trail. Similar to the home on Kalamazoo Trail, this homeowner also had a Ring doorbell camera and provided deputies with the video. This time, deputies were also able to identify Dowdy's vehicle.
Not long after responding to the Kashmir Trail home, deputies located a vehicle matching the description of Dowdy's vehicle on southbound US-1. After conducting a traffic stop, deputies made contact with Dowdy and 24-year-old Michael Pavlov.
At first, Pavlov and Dowdy explained to deputies that they were traveling through Florida from Ohio to "see the sights." When asked about the thefts, Dowdy claimed that she worked for Amazon and she needed to pick up the packages and bring them to different addresses. Deputies then asked Pavlov if he thought what Dowdy was doing seemed suspicious. Per a report from deputies, Pavlov said that even though it seemed wrong he decided to believe that she was conducting legitimate business.
After deputies showed her the surveillance footage, Dowdy admitted to stealing the packages and was subsequently arrested. A search of the car yielded the stolen packages, along with packages believed to be stolen from other jurisdictions. During the arrest, deputies searched Dowdy and Pavlov and discovered methamphetamine on Dowdy's person.
"This is a great example of how residents seeing something and saying something along with technology and good police work can come together to solve crimes and stop criminals in their tracks and directly to jail while quickly returning stolen property," Flagler Sheriff Staly said. "I want to commend the victims for taking their security seriously by installing security cameras which assisted our deputies in locating these offenders and stopping their crime spree."
Dowdy was charged with burglary of an occupied structure, burglary of an unoccupied structure, petty theft and two possession counts for methamphetamine and drug paraphernalia possession. Pavlov, on the other hand, was charged twice for burglary of an occupied structure. According to FCSO, Dowdy's bond was set at $19,000 and Pavlov's at $16,000.
