Siesta Key condo burglar captured

The Sarasota County Sheriff’s Office has charged a career criminal from Pinellas County in connection with a series of Siesta Key condominium burglaries.

Sheriff's detectives identified the suspect as 48-year-old Edward Grinnell. Sheriff's Office personnel worked with the Florida Department of Law Enforcement and the Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office to apprehend Grinnell.

On Monday, Grinnell ran from Pinellas County sheriff’s deputies during a traffic stop but was taken into custody a short time later. He was wearing the same dark Nike sandals, cargo shorts, t-shirt and hat seen in surveillance photos from the condominiums he is suspected of burglarizing on Siesta Key. He was also carrying a plastic bag containing burglary tools.

Grinnell is charged with one count each of burglary and grand theft and will be charged in at least six other Siesta Key cases when he is transferred to the Sarasota County Jail. The investigation is ongoing, according to a statement from the Sarasota County Sheriff's Office.

Grinnell will remain jailed in Pinellas County, where he faces additional charges.

According to the Sheriff's Office, Grinnell is a career criminal with more than 40 felony and misdemeanor convictions for burglary, grand theft, trafficking in stolen property and escape.

Contact Nolan Peterson at [email protected]