High school student on house arrest charged with stealing car, along with the owner’s rifle, pistol, and wallet

Staff report

GAINESVILLE, Fla. – Joshua Edward Brown, Jr., 18, was arrested early this morning for allegedly stealing a car from The Oaks apartment complex, along with the owner’s rifle, pistol, and wallet.

The victim reportedly left his unlocked Mustang parked in front of his apartment at The Oaks (6519 W. Newberry Road) on Thursday evening, and his roommate noticed it was gone when he returned early on Friday morning. The victim told the responding Gainesville Police Department officer that he had left a spare key fob inside the car, along with a rifle, a pistol, and his wallet.

The victim received fraud alerts notifying him that his stolen debit and credit cards were being used; one of these was on Sunday at a laundromat on Tower Road, and a nearby Alachua County Sheriff’s Deputy responded to the laundromat, where Brown’s mother reportedly said Brown gave her the card and that she was afraid Brown also had a stolen car.

Brown’s mother reportedly told the deputy that the family is staying in a nearby motel and that Brown, who is on house arrest, “went missing” on Friday. Another family member who has Brown’s Instagram logins reportedly saw a “selfie” in private messages on Brown’s account that showed him holding a rifle that appeared to be the victim’s rifle.

In the messages, a friend of Brown’s asked where he got the rifle, and Brown reportedly replied, “The oaks and a car… like 3 hours ago.” To another friend, Brown reportedly wrote, “And I got a mustang.”

Brown’s mother reportedly said she had confronted Brown with these messages when he returned to the motel room later, but he was uncooperative.

Brown and his siblings were reportedly located at the motel room, and Brown’s mother provided consent for deputies to search the room. The search reportedly produced the victim’s rifle under a couch, along with the victim’s wallet and driver’s license. Brown’s backpack reportedly contained ID cards and credit cards with other people’s names on them, none of whom were known to his family members. The arresting officer noted that these people have not yet been contacted to see if they are also victims of car burglaries.

Post Miranda, Brown reportedly said the Mustang was parked at a nearby store and the key fob was in the car. Deputies found the Mustang, unlocked with the key fob inside, and also found the victim’s pistol under a seat; the victim said that was not where he had left the pistol, so it had been moved.

Brown has been charged with armed burglary of a vehicle, two counts of possession of a firearm by an individual who was convicted of a felony as a juvenile, grand theft of a motor vehicle, and two counts of grand theft of a firearm. Brown has juvenile convictions between 2020 and 2023, including a conviction for battery of a detainee by another detainee. He was arrested as an adult in October 2024 for illegally carrying a concealed firearm and sentenced to two months in jail, followed by two years of probation.

[An earlier version of this article included information on a court document indicating that Brown told Court Services he is a Buchholz student, but Alachua County Public Schools said he is not a Buchholz student.]

He was arrested in February 2025 for running from an officer and was sentenced to a $376 fine; he has not yet started making payments on that. That arrest violated his probation, and on March 18, Judge David Kreider changed his probation to community control (house arrest) for six months.

Judge Meshon Rawls ordered him held without bail for violating probation and set bail at $275,000 on the new charges, including a 7 p.m. to 7 a.m. curfew.

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.