Crime & Safety News

Observant Coral Springs Cop Nabs Car Thief

by Sharon Aron Baron June 23, 2016

by Sharon Aron Baron June 23, 2016 13 views

Yordani Diaz Gomez

By: Sharon Aron Baron

Thanks to his familiarity with his surroundings, along with intuition, a Coral Springs police officer was able to catch a thief.

While Officer Eric Jomant was patrolling the Coral Springs Corporate Park area along with his K9 partner, Bandit, something didn’t seem quite right when at 1:15 a.m. on June 22, he noticed a gold Ford F-350 dually truck backing up to a trailer which carried a Bobcat track loader machine near the rear of a business. Being familiar with the area through the many hours spent patrolling there, he had never had seen equipment being moved at such an early hour in the morning.

Officer Jomant, who was at the 3000 block of 124 Avenue, notified dispatch and requested additional units to respond to the area while continuing watching with his lights off and his car concealed behind bushes. Without attaching the trailer, the man in the F-350 then exited the business plaza attempting to enter onto 124 Avenue from the rear of the business, remaining there for 30-40 seconds before he turned to travel south. Officer Jomant soon followed, and found the truck back in the business park with its lights off.

Twenty minutes later, Officer Jomant exited his car on foot and hid himself, along with Bandit, just 40 feet away from the F-350 watching the suspect in the driver seat. The suspect sat inside with the engine and lights off facing towards 124 Avenue turning his head repeatedly north and south for ten minutes. During this time, multiple units had responded all over the corporate park in a dark perimeter.

The suspect then started the truck and fled to 118 Avenue where another officer witnessed him crash and then flee from the driver’s seat while the truck was still moving. They found the suspect hiding near a tree and identified him as Yordani Diaz Gomez, 25, of Miami, Florida. He was then hospitalized with injuries to his leg.

Gomez was charged with grand theft after discovering he was driving a stolen vehicle. According to Miami Dade records, he was also charged with auto grand theft on May 5.

While clearing the vehicle, police found that Gomez was driving a truck stolen from a resident in Coral Springs. Inside was a manual for a track loader similar to the Bobcat that he was backing up to inside the industrial park. There was also a cut-off wheel tool on the front passenger floorboard which, according to police, is commonly used to remove locking devices. A crime scene technician noticed that near the track loader trailer, the coupling lock protecting the trailer was missing and a yellow piece of metal was laying on the ground.

Author Profile

Sharon Aron Baron

Editor of Talk Media and writer for Coral Springs Talk. CST was created in 2012 to provide News, Views, and Entertainment for the residents of Coral Springs and the rest of South Florida.