Some offenders can’t help but go right back to jail, even when they have an ankle monitor on them. One man in Florida performed some landscaping work for some seniors and ostensibly earned their trust, but once he discovered that they would be out of the house for a length of time, he pounced on the opportunity to steal from their house. And he even got his girlfriend to help him sell off what he stole at pawn shops in the area. Unfortunately for him, he didn’t get very far before he and his accomplice were caught.
Thief leaves GPS ankle monitor at the victim’s garage
52-year-old David Robitaille was caught and arrested after he had stolen $27,000 in property from senior victims in Deland, Florida, according to an October 16 post by the Volusia Sheriff’s Office on its official Facebook page.
According to the sheriff’s office, Robitaille had performed landscaping work for the senior victims. It’s an occupation that would allow a would-be thief to scope out someone’s home before robbing it. He then learned that the victims would be out of town for an extended period of time, which gave him the opportunity to pick their home clean.
In total, he stole more than $27,000 in property, which includes “12 guns from a gun safe he pried open.”
However, Robitaille made several notable mistakes. Not only was his robbery caught on surveillance video at the residence, but he had left his GPS ankle monitor still beeping in the garage. That made it obvious to police that Robitaille was involved in the theft. Detectives from the Volusia Sheriff’s Office then searched pawn records at various stores and learned that he and his girlfriend, Jennifer, had sold the stolen firearms, ammo, and tools there.
The Volusia Sheriff’s office coordinated with the Putnam County Sheriff’s Office Crime Suppression Team to locate both Robitaille and his accomplice and take both into custody without incident.
Robitaille has a lengthy criminal record that spans two decades
David Robitaille was arrested and faces a litany of charges, including 12 counts of grand theft of a firearm, one count of burglary while armed, 3 counts of dealing in stolen property, 3 counts of violation of the Florida Pawnbroking Act, one count of grand theft from a dwelling, and one count of possession of a firearm by a convicted felon. An inmate search for Robitaille reveals that he was booked on October 19.
According to the sheriff’s office, records show that Robitaille has a long rap sheet that includes 20 prior felony convictions. A record of Robitaille on Arrests.org, a data aggregator website that collects information on public arrest records, shows that the suspect has ten mugshots ranging from 2004 to 2025. He has been charged in the past with burglary, check forgery, and fraudulent use of a credit card.
His accomplice, Jennifer, was also arrested on related charges. The post doesn’t share what these charges are, but an inmate search results in a match for 35-year-old Jennifer Rochetti, who was booked on October 21. She faces similar counts of burglary, dealing in stolen property, grand theft, and violations of the Florida Pawnbroking Act. She is being held on a $62,500 bond.
Commenters on Facebook were surprised by the thief smiling in one of the police shots as well as his extensive amount of tattoos. One wrote, “You’d think if you had the word Freedom tattooed in the middle of your chest you’d think more about keeping your freedom. I guess there really wasn’t a lot of thinking going on here though.”
Several were dumbfounded by how the man forget his ankle monitor at the scene of the crime. One commenter said, “Gonna be hard to argue in court he wasn’t there leaving the ankle monitor in the garage.”
