he Okaloosa County Sheriff’s Office has charged a Fort Walton Beach man with burglarizing storage units at several area businesses and then storing the stolen goods in his own personal rented storage units and at his house. Investigators executed a search warrant at the home of 38-year old William Geoffrey Hopkins of 741 Bradford Drive on September 11th. They found evidence from multiple burglaries to storage units at the U-haul storage facility at 26 North Beal Parkway. A search warrant at Hopkins personal storage unit there also revealed that Hopkins had placed items he took from others at that complex into his own unit there. The items discovered ranged from Christmas decorations and surveying equipment to military gear and personal items dating from World War II. In addition, some of the stolen items at Hopkins’ home were connected to a burglarized storage unit at Personal Storage on Industrial Park Road in Destin. The OCSO executed a third search warrant September 13th at storage units rented by Hopkins at the Outback Storage Facility in Fort Walton Beach. They found more stolen goods including purses, a guitar, and movies. Investigators also found a bolt cutter in one of Hopkins’s rented units. They believe he used the tool to cut off padlocks, then replaced the broken ones with new ones to try to hide the break-ins. Investigators are encouraging storage unit renters at those facilities who have not recently checked their belongings to do so and report any thefts.
Posted on: Thu, 19 Sep 2013 14:53:32 +0000
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