Tampa man arrested in Gainesville for jewelry thefts in multiple Florida pawn stores

Staff report

GAINESVILLE, Fla. – Deshard La’montae Darns, 27, of Tampa, was arrested yesterday in Gainesville for allegedly stealing expensive jewelry from pawn shops all over Florida, using fake IDs.

At about 4:25 p.m. on January 23, Gainesville Police Department (GPD) officers responded to Value Pawn (2360 N. Main St.), where Darns had reportedly entered the store and asked to see a bracelet worth over $5,000; he reportedly said, “I’m looking for the heaviest gold you have.”

However, earlier that day, the store had received a bulletin from Value Pawn’s divisional Loss Prevention Manager, warning stores to watch out for a man who had been going into Value Pawn stores in cities all over Florida. The bulletin said that the suspect typically asks for a very expensive piece of jewelry and hands over an ID, complying with Value Pawn’s policy of requiring a customer to hand over an ID before holding any jewelry valued at $500 or more. However, this suspect typically “bolts” with the jewelry, leaving the ID behind, and the IDs are later found to be fake.

The bulletin notified stores that the suspect had stolen a necklace worth $2,625 from a Jacksonville store on January 22, and he made other attempts at other Jacksonville Value Pawn stores but was unsuccessful. The bulletin included surveillance images of the suspect, and the man who went to the Gainesville Value Pawn on January 23 was reportedly wearing the same clothing as the suspect in the images taken the previous day.

Because the Gainesville store had been warned to look out for the suspect, they did not hand the bracelet to the man, and the man left the store and walked around the back of the building.

Patrol officers in the area responded quickly and made contact with Darns, who allegedly gave a fake name and said his birthday is in September. He allegedly gave the officers a fake Georgia ID with his picture, but the name was found to belong to a white male. The Georgia ID reportedly had no hologram, and the ID number came back with “no record found.” Facial recognition was used to obtain Darns’ real identity.

A search incident to arrest reportedly produced his correct Florida ID card, IDs and credit cards in other people’s names, and about 0.2 grams of methamphetamine. Officers are still investigating whether the other IDs and credit cards were stolen.

The Value Pawn Loss Prevention Manager told a GPD Detective that Darns has been following the same pattern at Value Pawn locations throughout Florida over the past two months, including seven known successful thefts in Palm Bay, Deland, Sanford, Orlando, Hollywood, and Jacksonville; the combined value of the known thefts is $42,558.

Darns has been charged with engaging in a scheme to defraud, possession of a controlled substance, and giving a false name to a law enforcement officer. His criminal history is currently unavailable; Judge Susanne Wilson Bullard set bail at $270,000.

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.