You can take Florida Man out of Florida, but ....

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Florida Man gets plea offer for 2021 Greenwich home burglary

Okay, our perp is originally from Chile, not Florida, but he obviously spent enough time in the Sunshine State to learn and adopt that training ground’s unique Florida Man criminal skills.

[Fabian] Navarro-Aliaga and Telchea-Droguett, both residents of Kissimmee, Fla., were identified as suspects in the case after an extensive investigation.

According to reports, a cab driver had picked up two men from central Greenwich and driven them to Queens on the night of the burglary

… Police … said a Chilean passport belonging to Telchea-Droguett was found in a Jeep Cherokee found parked near the scene of the break-in. The car had been rented — and was overdue for return — from a Florida car rental agency. Police said Navarro-Aliaga had submitted the paperwork for the car, including a copy of his Chilean passport, the affidavit said. Fingerprints from Telchea-Drouguett and Navarro-Aliaga were found in the vehicle.

Police said they also found items in the vehicle that came from other burglaries, including a Fendi purse with identification inside for a woman from Charlottesville, Va., and a case for earphones with an unusual label, police said. The items were stolen in two residential burglaries in Charlottesville, authorities there confirmed.

Police checked with the Department of Homeland Security and found the pair had entered the U.S. in the Miami area in March 2021 and had overstayed their tourist visas. Telchea-Droguett has a criminal record in Chile for burglary and theft; Navarro-Aliaga has a record there of "theft with intimidation," court papers stated.

To sum up this candidate’s campaign to win the coveted title of Florida Man:

  1. Overstay your visa

  2. Rent a car in your own name and then fail to return it, so that it can be reported as stolen

  3. Break into a house, then abandon your stolen car nearby, leaving behind your passport, fingerprints, and loot from previous robberies.

  4. Take a taxi out of Greenwich so that the driver can get a good look at you, identify you, and tell the police where you went.

We’ve certainly seen more creative Florida Man capers, but everyone’s entitled to turn in a so-so effort now and then, and besides, this is Greenwich, after all: that Florida magic probably fades a bit as one travels 1,300 miles north. At the very least, we’ll give him a participation trophy.

Of course, our visiting hero does have some stiff competition, including a contestant from Florida’s neighbor, Georgia.