Debit card left during Florida robbery leads to arrest

PALM COAST, Fla. (AP) — Crime might not pay, but authorities say a criminal tried to.

Authorities arrested a Florida man who they said broke into a convenience store and took a few items, although he left his debit card behind.

In a video Flagler County Sheriff Rick Staly posted to Facebook, the suspect told deputies he left his debit card so he “could come back later and pay” for the items he took.

“I didn’t want to steal anything, you know, that’s against the law,” he said in the video.

Deputies responded to an alarm at a closed Palm Coast gas station in the early morning of Feb. 5, according to the Facebook post.

The store owner showed deputies surveillance video, and they also located a debit card with the suspect’s name on it on the counter near the register, the sheriff said. The deputies actually recognized the man in the video from a vehicle fire near the gas station earlier that night.

“He must have really wanted those items to break into a closed convenience store to get them,” Staly said. “Leaving a debit card behind does not absolve you from theft or committing a burglary.”

Deputies said they tracked the man down to return the debit card — and arrest him for burglary and theft.