Homeowner stumbles upon would-be burglar
BY FRANKLIN HAYES Gulf Breeze News franklin@gulfbreezenews.com
A Gulf Breeze man was recently arrested for a burglary that occurred on Soundside Drive just before sundown Feb. 26. The same man, Hung Thanh Nguyen, 19, was arrested for several other burglaries in Gulf Breeze in 2006.

Nguyen

"This same suspect was recently arrested in November for 10 other burglaries in the Gulf Breeze area," said Sgt. Scott Haines with the Santa Rosa Sheriff's Department.

According to a report provided by the Sheriff's Office, on Feb. 26 a little after 4:30 p.m., Phillip Sandvort, 69, and Kragh Folland, 45, were returning to Sandvort's home on the 4600 block of Soundside Drive in Gulf Breeze from a nearby home improvement retailer. The two men saw another man donning latex gloves leave the garage and walk toward an unfamiliar 1991 Toyota 4-door sedan parked near by.

"For a second, I thought Phil had hired some guy to do yard work," Folland wrote in an email to Gulf Breeze News. "We quickly realized this guy was going through the garage looking for something to steal."

According to witness accounts, when Sandvort tried to communicate with the alleged burglar, Nguyen began to run and jumped into the parked Toyota. As the car sped away, Sandvort copied the suspicious vehicle's license plate number. Neighbor David Von Brock followed the vehicle and verified the tag number Sandvort recorded. Witnesses said nothing was damaged or missing from the premises.

Deputies later traced the license plate back to Nguyen and his domicile on the 3100 block of Auburn Parkway, approximately five miles away. Nguyen consented to a search of his vehi-

-cle, which yielded the latex gloves described by Sandvort. Nguyen, who works as a commercial fisherman, then confessed to the crime and was placed under arrest.

In a recorded confession, Nguyen stated that he entered the garage and then the 2000 model Lincoln parked inside "to see if there was anything he wanted to take," deputy reports said.

While processing Nguyen for incarceration deputies found a folded $1 bill that contained .02 grams of cocaine.

Nguyen was charged with two felony counts of burglary and one felony count of smuggling contraband into a detention facility. Nguyen's bail was set at $30,000.