Tampa Man's Arrest Stems from Target Thefts in Greater Brandon

Dwight Wilson was an entrepreneur on the wrong side of the law, according to the findings of an undercover operation that reportedly found the Tampa man reselling stolen property, heisted from Target stores, at the D&L Paint & Body Shop in Tampa.

Detectives from the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office started working the case in June, after investigators with the Target Corp. reported information about an individual stealing merchandise from Target stores and reselling the stolen property at the Tampa auto body shop at 401 East Henderson Ave.

“The merchandise was taken from various stores, the Target in Brandon, the one in Bloomingdale and the one down in Gibsonton,” said Detective Larry McKinnon, a Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office spokesman, in an interview June 29.

He added that a firearm recovered from the auto body shop was traced to a residential burglary in Brandon.

“A lot of people steal things and use them for themselves,” McKinnon said. “But when you have people who provide illegal storefronts for buying stolen property, you have a market now for people to make money by selling stolen goods.”

And that’s exactly what the undercover detectives did; they reportedly sold “stolen” items to the suspect later identified  as Wilson, 46, of 1420 East Jean Street. “Wilson soon began instructing undercover detectives on what types of stolen property he wanted so he could sell the items in the future,” according to the report released by the sheriff’s office on June 29.

Wilson is charged with dealing in stolen property, grand theft, possession of cocaine, possession of drug paraphernalia and armed trafficking in illegal drugs.

After “numerous hand- to-hand transactions with Wilson,” a search warrant reportedly was obtained and executed, at which time “an estimated value of $8,000 to $10,000 in merchandise was recovered, including 12 stolen bicycles,” according to the sheriff's report. The bicycles included several identified as stolen from downtown Tampa and the Channelside District.

Also seized, according to the report:

• Two firearms, one of which was identified as stolen during a residential burglary in the Brandon area, and
• Narcotics, including small quantities of crack and powder cocaine and 62 grams of non-prescribed Vicoden.