Burglary not investigated properly by Manatee County Sheriff's Office

I am a single woman living in Holiday Heights and my home was burglarized while I attended the DeSoto Heritage Parade. When I arrived at the parade, the sheriff's department contacted me and said my home had been burglarized. They asked if I could come to the scene.

When I arrived, I was told they caught my neighbor exiting my house and was in custody.

My other neighbors had called 911 and told them my house was being burglarized; that the thieves were taking my stuff to their house. Deputies refused to get a search warrant after the subject refused to allow them to search his home, the same home my neighbor identified as where they took my belongings.

I followed up by contacting the sergeant on call who preceded to call the CIS lead. He said probable cause did not apply to the situation. Needless to say, because I did not feel safe in my own home, I was forced to sleep at my parents' home across town.

The next day, I went to the sheriff's department and received a copy of my case, only to find out no one had been arrested.

According to the officers responding to the call, the shift sergeant and the officers at the main desk of the Manatee County Sheriff's Office, probable cause did not exist.

When I looked up probable cause, I found this from Cornell Law: "Probable cause exists when there is a fair probability that a search will result in evidence of a crime being discovered."

I feel that I have been mistreated, mislead, not protected and endangered by the sheriff's department's lack of professionalism and abhorrent irresponsibility. What am I to do?

Brittany Taylor

Bradenton

This story was originally published May 10, 2016 at 12:00 AM with the headline "Burglary not investigated properly by Manatee County Sheriff's Office ."