A man in Florida told police he’d stolen a number of pool inflatables so he could have sex with them instead of raping women.
Christopher William Monnin, the 35-year-old burglary suspect, allegedly broke into a number of homes in the city of Palm Bay in Brevard County, Florida.
Each of the homes had private pools, which the suspect reportedly targetted in order to steal the flotation aids.
A recent increase in burglaries solely targetted towards the homeowners’ pool area led police to believe they were looking for one suspect.
According to the Palm Bay Police Department in Brevard County, as per the Miami Herald, the city was ‘plagued’ with burglaries in which the suspect cut the pool screen or entered the victim’s pool area to steal only pool floats.
So far this year, there have been an estimated 13 reports concerning the mysterious theft of pool toys, court records show.
Police made an arrest last Thursday (June 13), believing Monnin to be responsible for the multiple thefts.
Police allege ‘multiple victims’ indicated they had been burglarised several times by the 35-year-old, but only reported it on the second or third burglary of their floats.
The arrest report read:
[The] defendant stated that he sexually gratifies himself with the pool floats instead of raping women.
Monnin was arrested after a burglary on June 5, when police say the suspect cut the pool screen to get onto the deck of a home in Palm Bay.
Police stopped Monnin a week later ‘as a suspicious person’ after he was riding his bike on a street just after 1am on Thursday, with a white rubbish bag full of deflated pool floats.
At this point, Monnin took officers to an empty house where he allegedly stored floats and around 75 were found – including two which the most recent victim had described.
The 35-year-old was charged with burglary of an occupied dwelling, petit theft of a property (whereby the value of said property is less than $300), and criminal mischief of $200 or less.
His total bond at Brevard County Jail on the three charges is $16,000, with a condition of his release being he must be fitted with a GPS monitoring device.
Monnin will be arraigned on July 16 at Moore Justice Center.
If you have a story you want to tell send it to UNILAD via story@unilad.com
A Broadcast Journalism Masters graduate who went on to achieve an NCTJ level 3 Diploma in Journalism, Lucy has done stints at ITV, BBC Inside Out and Key 103. While working as a journalist for UNILAD, Lucy has reported on breaking news stories while also writing features about mental health, cervical screening awareness, and Little Mix (who she is unapologetically obsessed with).