Courthouse watch theft is epitome of bad timing

LARGO — Note to thieves: Don't swipe a thousand-dollar watch when you're surrounded by sheriff's deputies and surveillance cameras.

The Pinellas County Sheriff's Office says that's what happened Monday at the Criminal Courts Complex on 49th Street.

People entering the courthouse are asked to take everything out of their pockets so the items can be scanned. After walking through a metal detector, they retrieve the items from trays, often with several sheriff's deputies supervising. The process can take less than a minute.

On Monday morning, one man complained that his $1,000 Wittnauer watch somehow didn't make the journey. It wasn't in the gray metal tray when he went to retrieve it.

Deputies played back the surveillance video and saw another man pocketing the expensive watch, spokeswoman Marianne Pasha said.

One deputy recognized the thief, whom they later identified as Willie Earl Jeter, 53, of Clearwater. They found him in a fourth-floor courtroom, where he had a pretrial hearing on a charge of selling cocaine.

Pasha said Jeter pulled the watch out of his pocket and told deputies "he didn't even need a watch but he liked the way this one looked."

He was arrested on a grand theft charge and booked into the Pinellas County Jail. He was later released on $5,000 bail.