Cat burglar declawed: Orlando man back to prison after high-rise crime spree in Volusia
Most burglary convictions pass unnoticed, but that wasn’t the case today for an Orlando man with a cat-like ability to land on his feet after already serving one stretch in prison.
The joking began almost as soon as Andrew Puc pleaded no contest to multiple burglaries by climbing up the outside of tall buildings lining the Volusia County coast.
“Essentially a cat burglar with some Spiderman-like skills … Puc scaled up the outside of beachside condos,” wrote Klare Ly, a spokeswoman for the 7th Judicial Circuit State Attorney’s Office in Daytona Beach. “After today’s no-contest plea…Puc will have to practice his art of scaling high rises behind a prison fence.”
Slightly built at 5-foot-11 and 155 pounds, Puc showed a devotion to family and the University of Florida by tattooing “Mother” and “Father” on his hands and the UF Gators’ logo on the tops of his feet. Not one to forget his birth year, he tattooed, “Established 1991″ across his chest, records show.
Known as “Puc Puc”, he wrote on his Facebook page that he had attended Daytona State College and “I am a success story. Not a statistic.” State prison records show higher education had to wait after his studies were interrupted in 2009 by convictions for burglary, drug possession and fraudulent use of identification.
He served eight months of a year-long sentence at Hamilton Work Camp before being released last November from prison and sent home to Orlando, records show.
His most recent downfall came last spring after condo residents in Daytona Beach and Ormond Beach reported someone had burglarized their homes through unlocked doors on balconies as high as four floors above the street, reports state.
On April 15, the owners of a condo in Ormond Beach slept through their 5:30 a.m. burglary when two people slipped in through a second-floor sliding glass door. They left just as quietly carrying a Mac laptop, an Apple IPHONE and cash worth $2,763, reports state.
Within hours, Puc posted the computer and the phone on Craigslist and listed his cell phone number and email address. That was the number an undercover police officer called later the same day.
Puc agreed to sell the computer at a Burger King restaurant where he was arrested on charges of burglary, grand theft, dealing in stolen property and drug possession.
Under today’s plea agreement, Puc will serve seven years in prison as an habitual felony offender followed by seven years of drug offender probation, according to the state attorney’s office.
hcurtis@tribune.com or 407-420-5257.
Article source: http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/local/crime/os-cat-burglar-declawed-daytona-beach-20111027,0,4815083.story?track=rss
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