Thursday, March 21, 2019

Serial Burglar Arrested After He is ID’ed from Facebook Video









March 21, 2019

Local business owner Ryan Bell purchased the building formally known as Deke’s Restaurant and installed a state of the art video surveillance system. His simple decision to safeguard his own property led to the arrest of Harold William Santry, Jr (8-19-64) of Chiefland. 

Mr. Bell and his wife used social media to flood our local area with the video his surveillance system captured of the then unknown suspect. One of their followers who was shopping at Wal-Mart identified Santry Tuesday afternoon. Santry, who must have been totally unaware of the video, was inside Wal-Mart shopping too. LCSO Deputies and Chiefland Police Department Officers responded to Wal-Mart and apprehended Santry. 

Santry has a lengthy arrest history with arrests beginning in 1984. He has amassed 15 felony arrests with 9 felony convictions and two tours through the Florida Department of Corrections. His crimes include battery on a law enforcement officer, resisting arrest with violence, fleeing and attempting to elude law enforcement, aggravated battery of LEO, theft, drugs and burglary just to name a few.

Detectives executed a search warrant on his home and discovered a wood chipper reported stolen in a Levy County case our deputies responded to in 2015. Detectives also discovered Santry moved into Levy County in June of 2015. Multiple firearms were recovered and Santry has been charged with possession of a firearm by a convicted felon as well as other crimes. 

LCSO Detectives will be working on this case for months. Many seized items have been identified, but most have not. Santry appeared to target the areas between Chiefland and Fanning Springs. Residents who lived in these areas between June of 2015 and March of 2019 and have had something stolen from their home are asked to contact our Criminal Investigations Division at 352-486-5111 to schedule a meeting. We will allow you to view all the property which has not been identified. The process of cataloging the items will take time and we are asking for your patience.

We are also asking our public if you had any interaction with Santry or even purchased something from him to contact us. He is a very accomplished criminal and we want to ensure you that you are not in trouble. We just need to identify any stolen property he may have sold to the unsuspecting. Additional cases identified this way would allow us to file more charges on him and ensure he does not ever get out of jail again to victimize another Levy County resident. 

Santry is being held in the Levy County Detention Facility in lieu of a $695,000.00 bond.