Man faces burglary charges after stealing from Collier County hotel room

A 37-year-old man faces multiple felony charges in connection with a burglary at a Collier County hotel in September.

Detectives say Thomas James White got into a victim’s hotel room at WoodSpring Suites at 3786 White Lake Blvd., near Golden Gate, on Sept. 15 after telling the front desk clerk he lost his room key. The clerk gave White a key to the victim’s room without checking his identity and confirming that White was actually the guest who rented the room. At the time, White was staying in a room two doors down from the victim.

Hotel security video shows White knocking on the victim’s room door and then walking to the lobby to get a door key card from a desk clerk. He is shown a few minutes later exiting the victim’s room carrying two beverages in his hands with something heavy filling out the pockets of his shorts, not visible earlier on the video footage.

The victim says four wristwatches valued at $1,750 and a checkbook were stolen from the room. Detectives identified White as the suspect in the video from earlier run-ins with law enforcement. He was spotted very early Friday morning smoking a cigarette outside a Red Roof Inn by Collier County sheriff’s deputies patrolling the 1900 block of Davis Boulevard, who took him into custody on probable cause.

A search of White turned up multiple narcotics in his pockets including cocaine and crystal methamphetamine. White, who did not list his address on arrest reports, faces charges of grand theft, burglary, possession of cocaine, possession of amphetamine, possession of a controlled substance and possession of narcotic paraphernalia. He is a convicted felon and was out on bond at the time of his arrest.