The Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office announced the arrest of a man who was wanted for burglarizing a Lake Worth home and stealing over $10,000 worth of Conure birds.
Deputies said the victim was alerted to a man caught on surveillance camera inside her home. Once the woman returned home, she found 69 of her bird cages emptied out and the birds gone.
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WATCH HEREAccording to a police report, the woman had 20 cockatoos, 10 baby cockatoos, four parakeets, 15 canaries, and 20 pigeons.
The surveillance video shows a man wearing a camo jacket and a black hat entering the home at 8:35 a.m. Wednesday with a large knife strapped to his side. Moments later, the same man appears again at 9:35 a.m. wearing a blue hoodie, and his face uncovered just slightly, the report said.
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Deputies were able to identify the suspect as Damian Ramallo. After media coverage of the theft, the suspect began dumping the birds in the trash, which brought attention to him.
“I was very happy," said Rider Caballero, who owns the birds. "I thought that by arresting him we might have our puppy and some of the birds back.”
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He assured this is good news for his wife.
"My wife was very happy because now she doesn’t have panic, or is nervous that someone will come into the house and attack us," Caballero said. "That is what she was afraid of, that he might do something to her or our children, but that fear is over we know he is in jail. “
Romallo, who has a criminal history dating back to 2008, faces charges of grand larceny, burglary and theft. He refused to appear in his bond court hearing Monday.
The judge ordered a $20,000 bail on two of the counts but denied it for the charge of armed burglary in a dwelling.
