GPS pings help locate stolen items in car where suspects were ‘sleeping’

Staff report

GAINESVILLE, Fla. – Jeremiah Patrick Oglesbee, 18, and Timerio Dwayne Williams, Jr., 18, were arrested Friday night after GPS pings led officers to a car where they were “sleeping”; Oglesbee is on probation and on pre-trial release and had an active warrant for violating probation.

On May 9, a burglary victim reported that multiple devices from her stolen bookbag were showing a GPS location near Butler Plaza. The responding Gainesville Police Department officer found a vehicle at that location and saw two men “sleeping” inside the vehicle (“sleeping” is used in quotation marks throughout the arrest report without explaining what is meant).

The officer also noted that he could see multiple items belonging to the victim through the windows of the vehicle.

The person who leased the vehicle told the officer that she allowed the two men to “sleep” in her vehicle and gave consent for a search.

The victim’s stolen items were found at the locations of the GPS pings, and the victim’s bookbag was found about 50 feet from the vehicle occupied by the two men, hidden behind some bushes.

Post Miranda, both men reportedly said they were asleep the entire night and did not know how the stolen items got into the vehicle. Oglesbee reportedly later stated that he had stayed in the vehicle while Williams took the victim’s belongings from her vehicle at the Residence Inn (3275 SW 40th Blvd).

Both men have been charged with burglary to an unoccupied vehicle and grand theft.

Oglesbee was last arrested in October 2024 for loitering, trespassing, and resisting an officer without violence, and at the time, he was listed as a Buchholz student who had a juvenile record between 2020 and 2022; he was also on pre-trial release for grand theft of a motor vehicle. Adjudication of guilt was withheld in the vehicle theft case, and he was sentenced to two years of probation. His probation officer filed an affidavit on May 2, stating that he had failed to make any payments toward the cost of supervision, had failed to obtain employment or attend school, had not completed a required anti-theft course, and stopped earning community service hours after completing 25 hours (he is required to complete 50 hours). He was instructed to participate in an employability program on May 1 but failed to show up.

Oglesbee also has a Notice to Appear in two cases of bicycle theft.

Judge Phillip Pena set bail at $50,000 on the new charges and ordered Oglesbee held without bail until the probation violations are resolved.

Williams has no local adult criminal history. Judge Pena set bail at $20,000.

Articles about arrests are based on reports from law enforcement agencies. The charges listed are taken from the arrest report and/or court records and are only accusations. All suspects are innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.