Man pleads guilty to theft of dump truck, gets more than two years in prison

A Collier County man has been sentenced to more than two years in prison after pleading guilty to grand theft and burglary of an Orange County dump truck that was later recovered in Lee County.

Jose L. Rodriguez was sentenced by Lee County Circuit Judge Thomas Reese to 28 months in state prison and was ordered to pay restitution of more than $6,000 for the theft.

The case was prosecuted by the Florida Attorney General's Office, which announced the sentence Monday.

The investigation started in August 2005, when a dump truck worth $110,000 was reported stolen to the Orange County Sheriff's Office. The 2004 Kenworth truck was equipped with "Lojack," an electronic tracking device, which was activated by the Florida Highway Patrol and revealed that the truck was in Fort Myers.

The Lee County Sheriff's Office began 24-hour surveillance of the truck and observed two men, later identified as Rodriguez and an accomplice, drive the truck to an industrial storage lot. Both men were arrested at the site.

Rodriguez, 35, was charged with grand theft, a first-degree felony, and of burglary of a conveyance, a third-degree felony. His alleged accomplice, Tomas Velez Valdivia, failed to make a court appearance in November 2005 and is now considered a fugitive, with a warrant issued for his arrest on five counts of criminal charges.