Boca Detectives Catch Motorcycle Thieves in the Act at Apartment Complex, Charges Filed

Henry Williams, 50, of Lauderhill, and Glaister Deer, 45, of Boynton Beach. (Photos: PBSO)

Boca Raton police detectives, working with the South Florida Task Force to investigate auto burglaries, tracked a van known to be involved in the theft of motorcycles from a luxury apartment complex – all the way to the alleged suspects’ out-of-town hideout.

Two men, Henry Williams, 50, of Lauderhill, and Glaister Deer, 45, of Boynton Beach, have since been charged in the case.

The investigation began as Boca Raton detectives were conducting surveillance June 19 on a gold Toyota Sienna minivan that had been linked to previous vehicle thefts. The detectives watched as the van pulled into the parking garage of the 10X Mizner Park apartment complex on E. Camino Real, went to the fifth level, and backed up near the space where a Yamaha motorcycle was parked, a police report said. After blocking the view of a security camera, two men were seen loading an object into the van before driving away.

Police followed the van to an apartment complex in Tamarac, Broward County, where the same two men were seen looking at a blue Yamaha motorcycle parked next to their vehicle. The men entered the van and drove off, giving detectives on the scene time to confirm it was the same motorcycle that had been stolen. The men returned a short time later, appeared to be “working on the motorcycle,” the report said, before both vehicles drove to another location in Tamarac. By this time, the license plate had been removed from the motorcycle and “the ignition wires appeared to be cut.”

The task force continued its surveillance on the suspect van, and on June 24 followed it to the Ashley Lakes apartment complex in Boynton Beach while a Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office helicopter hovered above. The men arrested as officers saw them remove the cover off a motorcycle in that apartment complex’s parking lot and begin riding it toward the van.

Williams and Deer were charged with grand theft auto, burglary to an unoccupied conveyance, and crossing county lines to commit burglary. Police allege in their report that photos from the two men’s phones – obtained after a judge approved a search warrant on the devices – show the stolen motorcycles at Deer’s home.