Man faces felony charges after he allegedly stole from an East Naples construction site

A man has been arrested on a felony charge after deputies spotted a suspicious vehicle at an East Naples construction site.

“There is no substitute for the gut instinct of a well-trained deputy,” Collier County Sheriff Kevin Rambosk said in a release about the arrest. “Because this deputy followed his instincts, he uncovered a crime while also preventing the likely theft of heavy equipment from a construction site.”

Thursday morning, deputies responded to a report of a suspicious pickup truck at a construction site in the area of Rattlesnake Hammock Road and The Lords Way. The truck had its lights off and was parked next to a Bobcat loader on a trailer. The occupants hurried back in the truck and sped off when they were approached by another vehicle.

Deputies canvassed the area but were unable to locate the truck.

Deputy Dominic Lesniewski had a hunch the vehicle would return and continued to monitor the site. About an hour later, he spotted a pickup matching the description of the suspect vehicle pass by the construction site and fail to stop at a stop sign.

Lesniewski conducted a traffic stop on the truck. He found the registration on the truck had expired. The driver, 25-year-old Edrey Olazabal Pereira, had a suspended license and no insurance.

Numerous tools typically targeted in construction thefts were found inside the truck such as hacksaws, hammers, wrenches and a grinder. There was an engine lift in the bed of the truck and a large metal tank that emitted an overwhelming odor of fuel. The deputy also found numerous other violations for the lawful transport of fuel, the arrest report said.

Olazabal Pereira was taken into custody and charged with a felony of transporting dangerous material/unlawful transport of fuel. The hacksaw and grinder were confiscated for evidence.