FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. – A judge found probable cause to charge a Fort Lauderdale man with a felony Tuesday after authorities accused him of stealing a Broward County deputy’s motorcycle helmet at the Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport over the weekend.
Authorities said the deputy had left the helmet sitting on his parked, BSO-issued Harley-Davidson while he went into the terminal.
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According to an arrest report obtained Wednesday, Timothy Kelly got off an American Airlines flight from Philadelphia just after 1:30 p.m. Saturday and then spent roughly the next hour and a half at the Golden Bear Restaurant.
About 30 minutes after leaving the restaurant, deputies said Kelly, 56, was seen on surveillance video picking up the $700 helmet from the motorcycle and asking another passenger to take a photo of him with it.
Kelly then walked away with the helmet and left the airport in a rideshare vehicle, the report states. The deputy would later come back out to notice that his helmet had been swiped.
Authorities said through surveillance video provided by Philadelphia police, they were able to determine that Kelly was the last person to board the flight to FLL Saturday and investigators got his name and contact information from American Airlines.
On Monday, deputies said they called Kelly, who said he would return to the airport with the helmet.
The report states that Kelly was arrested after bringing back the helmet and confirming he stole it and took a photo with it.
Court records show Kelly is charged with grand theft of law enforcement equipment, a second-degree felony. He was no longer listed in Broward jail records as of Wednesday.