Volusia County Sheriff’s Office

TAVARES, Fla.—A former Tavares police officer is being held in the Lake County Jail on $171,000 bond, accused of burglarizing $50,000 worth of jewelry, along with credit and debit cards from a Volusia County home earlier this week.

Theodore “Teddy” Pearl, 28, is accused of stealing numerous pieces of jewelry from a home in DeBary that belonged to the grandparents of a juvenile friend of his, according to a Volusia Sheriff’s Office (VSO) charging affidavit.

VSO responded to the home on River Drive Monday when one of the homeowners reported her home had been burglarized while she and her husband were out of state on vacation. She told the deputy numerous pieces of jewelry were missing, including necklaces, bracelets, earrings and a ring, in addition to a passport, checkbooks, credit cards, a $500 speaker and extra vehicle fobs. The total value of the items is approximately $50,000, the affidavit states.

The victim said she felt the theft was personal. She told the deputy one of her grandsons was watching over the home while she was out of town, and he came to the home to help her look for the stolen items. Her grandson told the deputy that while he was looking, he observed a grey glove being placed over her Ring camera. While the deputy was speaking to him, the victim advised her stepdaughter had found the victim’s checkbooks and a gold pendant in her juvenile son’s room. The deputy noted the juvenile had been arrested for a violation of probation around the time of the burglary.

On Wednesday, a VSO detective received the burglary report and traveled to the Detention Juvenile Justice Center to interview the juvenile. First, the boy said he was unaware of the burglary at his grandmother’s home, but later changed his story and said he and Pearl, a friend of his, were texting back and forth and agreed to meet up. The juvenile told the detective, Pearl “used to be a detective” for a law enforcement agency in the area and provided a Facebook and Instagram account with the name “Tee Juiced Up” for Pearl.

A search of the boy’s phone later revealed the conversation between the pair. An excerpt of the conversation is below.

(Pearl): I want day wholeeee jewelry drawer (racial slur)

(Juvenile) N we gonna get itttt

(Pearl) You 100% know where dat jewelry key is right my (racial slur)?

(Juvenile) Ya

Pearl apparently responds he was ready to get the money, the affidavit states.

(Juvenile) I’m really hoping my grandparents have not gone back home yet and try to get me a small bottle of vodka so I’m not trippin when we do it.

(Pearl) (Expletive) bro if they home it gon (expletive) everything up.

(Pearl) We’d have to try and find cards or get into the truist account of some (expletive.) Why don’t you think they’re home yet?

 

At 1:19 a.m. Tuesday, Pearl texted the juvenile and stated he’s 10 minutes away and to meet him at the stop sign down the street from the juvenile’s home. Pearl picked the juvenile up in his “burnt orange” Dodge Hellcat and reportedly told the juvenile he wanted to go to the victim’s house to steal items. The juvenile said they went to his grandmother’s home and collected jewelry, checkbooks and other documents from the home. The juvenile said he placed a glove over the ring camera, and he knew Pearl’s intentions were to sell or pawn the items for cash.

The detective ran a search of Pearl’s phone number in a pawn shop database and found two transactions at a Winter Park pawn shop that totaled more than $3,000. Detectives contacted the pawn shop owner who provided video surveillance that showed Pearl in the business and two distinct hand tattoos, one of a skeleton’s jaw on his right hand and a skeleton’s hand on his left. “Tee Juiced Up’s” social media pages did reveal a photo showing both tattoos, the affidavit states.

The pawn shop owner provided detectives with a photocopy of Pearl’s driver license and copies of the transactions that included Pearl’s personal information, including his name, date of birth and address. He listed his place of employment as Tavares PD. Inside Lake reached out to TPD’s public information officer Thursday morning and she confirmed Pearl resigned from TPD late last year on Dec. 27, 2023. The shop owner told detectives Pearl was contacting him with photos of more items he had to sell, and he provided those photos to detectives. The victim confirmed the items belonged to her, according to the affidavit.

Detectives determined there was probable cause for Pearl’s arrest for grand theft more than $20,000, fraud-swindle-obtain property under $20,000, burglary, dealing in stolen property and contributing to the delinquency of a minor. He was arrested in Lake County Wednesday night and transported to the Lake County Jail, where he is being held on $171,000 bond.