Description
"Have you ever seen a cranker colony?" Sheriff Grady Judd asked in a video posted to YouTube on Friday. Revealing a group of 11 mugshots, he said: "Now you have."
The 'cranker colony,' according to Judd, was a group of people who were all living together and all contributed to "devastating" a house belonging to a veteran from Polk County. He says eleven people were arrested in connection to a robbery on the property. The victim's mother's car, a lawn mower and golf cart were also stolen, and Judd says they were later sold.
Most of the people accused were living in a nearby property — the "colony" — with "numerous environmental and health hazards," including sewage leaking from their motorhomes.
Two of them were found living on the victim's property in Lakeland in a shed, where they were "stealing electricity" from his property, Judd said.
The victim was in North Dakota for military service, along with his mother, when the crime happened.
Judd said when officers came to check on the property, they found two of the suspects, Brindy Matos and Anthony Maddox in the shed.
When they tried to apprehend Maddox, Judd said, "He ran... took us a while to catch him." However, "his girlfriend (Matos) couldn't run so well. She was seven months pregnant."
Maddox was apprehended by a K-9 team. Judd said he was hiding in a garage behind shelves.
He also pointed out a man named Michael Stone who was arrested in the operation.
"His mama named him Stone," Judd said. "That's an appropriate name, because he's a stoner."