St. Johns County deputies searching for eight people in stolen cars, guns incident

St. Johns County Sheriff’s Office deputies are looking to question eight people after discovering stolen cars and guns at the Gate Gas station on U.S. 1 in Nocatee Thursday night.

Deputies say they found two stolen vehicles from Baker County with three guns inside. They say two of the guns inside were reported stolen in Baker and Duval Counties.

Those responsible fled the scene.

Neighbors we spoke to say they feel uneasy knowing they’re out there tonight. Vicki Sellner tells Action News Jax Ryan Nelson she learned of the incident 24 hours later on Friday night.

“Oh my goodness,” Sellner told reporter Ryan Nelson. “Well, like you saw, I just locked my car before I started talking to you.”

Action News Jax Ryan Nelson requested and obtained a list of stolen guns recovered in St. Johns County in 2018.

As of Friday, Dec. 14, 2018, 25 guns previously reported stolen have been recovered in the county.

The list includes revolvers, and semi-automatic handguns.

“I'm sure whoever stole them had probably evil ideas or purposes to do with them,” said Jason Stiles, who lives in St. Johns County.

St. Johns County Sheriff’s Office spokesperson Chuck Mulligan tells Nelson preventing a gun from being stolen by taking it out of your car at night, and locking your doors, could mean preventing a more serious crime.

“… Should they use it in a robbery, use it in a homicide, use it to commit a home invasion … ” said Mulligan.

St. Johns deputies said the stolen cars were spotted by a License Plate Reader and the technology alerted deputies to the stolen vehicles.

Spokesperson Chuck Mulligan tells me it’s becoming more common for the technology to lead deputies to stolen cars, and eventually, stolen weapons.

“What we know is that we had a stolen car,” said Mulligan. “What we didn’t know is, that we would have a stolen car with multiple stolen firearms in it… Without question, yeah, this is not the first case in the last six months.”

Neighbors say the thought of the technology will take some getting used to.

“Well, it’s concerning in one way, you think about Big Brother in 1984,” said Sellner. “But in other ways it's quite comforting.”

Anyone with information regarding the identities and/or location of these individuals is asked to contact St. John’s deputies. You may remain anonymous by contacting Crime Stoppers. You may be eligible for a reward.

Cox Media Group