Polk County Sheriff’s Phone# 863-298-6200
If in an emergency Dial 911
News and Investigations
News & Investigations
News Releases and Public Information
Welcome to the Polk County Sheriff's Office News Room, where the Public Information Officers (PIO's) post all of the information that they release to the news media. PIO's act as liaisons between news media organizations and the Sheriff's Office. The PIO's routinely release timely and accurate information and Crime Stoppers bulletins, and respond to routine and "breaking news" media inquiries. News releases and Crime Stoppers information can be found on this page.
PCSO's full-time Public Information Officers are Brian Bruchey, Carrie Horstman, and Meghan Petty. The Public Information Officers can be reached by sending an e-mail collectively at PIOs@polksheriff.org.
The recent news releases sent out by the PIOs can be found here, and archived releases (older than 2017) can be found here.
Nov 13, 2024
Man with five retail theft convictions get arrested for two thefts in 15 minutes
Media Contact: Brian Bruchey, PIO
The Polk County Sheriff's Office arrested 42-year old Andrew Sylvester on Tuesday, November 12, 2024.
Deputies were called to a retail theft in progress at around 6:20pm, at the Publix store at 5185 US 98 South in Lakeland.
When the deputies arrived, they located Andrew outside of the store with a shopping cart full of groceries that he had not paid for. The value of the items in the cart was worth 243.92.
A store employee told deputies that this was the second cart of items that Andrew stole in the past fifteen minutes. He had wheeled another cart out of the store about ten minutes prior, and the value of the items in that cart was determined to be worth $206.10.
That was a grand total of $450.02.
Andrew's prior criminal history includes five prior theft convictions.
Andrew Sylvester was arrested and taken to the Polk County Jail and charged with two felony counts of retail theft.