BY DAN HILDEBRAN
Monitor Editor
STARKE— Bradford deputies arrested a Keystone Heights man after a witness photographed him stealing a canoe from his ex-girlfriend.
Jon Paul Shaver, 57, was arrested on Oct. 6 for the Aug. 3, 2021, offenses of burglary and petit theft.
According to court papers, a Bedford Lake-area resident saw two men strapping a canoe to a truck at a neighbor’s home and asked the pair what they were doing.
According to the witness, one of the men told him they had received permission from the neighbor next door to purchase the canoe from the owner for $20 and was instructed to leave the cash in the mailbox.
The witness added that he photographed the two men, then spoke to the next-door neighbor, who told the witness she never talked to anyone about her neighbor selling the vessel.
The witness reported the encounter to the sheriff’s office.
Bradford Sheriff’s Detective Michael Garmon wrote in an arrest affidavit that he contacted the canoe’s owner, who told him that she had broken up with Shaver recently and allowed him to use her truck until he could get back on his feet. She verified that the truck photographed during the theft was the vehicle she loaned to the defendant.
Garmon added that he drove to Shaver’s residence and saw the canoe from the road.
