OKEECHOBEE COUNTY, Fla. — A 72-year-old Okeechobee County man has been arrested as part of months-long investigation called "Operation Nail Bandit."
The Okeechobee County Sheriff's Office (OCSO) says it arrested John Allan Starnes, who's accused of "repeated acts of sabotage" against Okeechobee County Fire Rescue Station 1 and the Emergency Operations Center.
WATCH: Suspect targeted fire and emergency rescue for 19 months
Investigators say "Operation Nail Bandit," led by the Community Action Team (CAT), looked into a series of nails and sharp objects that were thrown behind fire rescue vehicles, causing damage and potentially slowing emergency response time. They say this activity spanned 19 months.
“We were just having random nails show up in front of our fire stations, in front of our fire trucks and ambulances, in front of our personal vehicles. We didn’t really know what was going on,” said Earl Wooten, fire chief of Okeechobee County.
After surveilling Starnes for weeks, OCSO says they caught him in the act on July 10. After a traffic stop, Starnes confessed to six documented incidents.
“We’re not going to allow this kind of stuff, especially, to our first responders,” said Okeechobee County Sheriff Noel Stephen.
Fire officials say Starnes was a familiar face.
“We had a fire at his house three years ago on his property,” Wooten said.
Deputies say similar sharp objects were also discovered outside the Emergency Operations Center. Officials say the pattern of tampering had been ongoing for more than a year and influenced operations.
“We would have to check our vehicles multiple times on multiple occasions. We’d have people walk every two hours and kind of check,” Wooten said.
The sheriff’s office released a photo showing various items collected during six documented incidents.
“We had some short little roofing nails that were branded, then we had some long roofing nails, then we started having like screws, then recently there was some like wire disk that were sharpened that were being thrown out,” Wooten added.
Starnes is now facing multiple felony charges related to criminal mischief. Authorities say the sabotage could have interfered with emergency response efforts.
"[It] puts the men and women that are responding at high speeds in the apparatuses in harm's way as they’re trying to go save lives,” said Sheriff Stephen.
“It’s definitely been concerning for our fire trucks and our community and our ambulances, you know, I mean, we're concerned about having nails in our tires and getting a flat tire on the way to a fire,” Wooten said. “It's definitely a relief to not worry about that no more.”
