Homestead man accused of stealing PWC, fleeing deputies with machete

A suspicious arrival near Mile Marker 55 ended with a Homestead man in custody after deputies say he stole a personal watercraft, fled law enforcement and was later tied to a machete threat.

Jose Roberto Munoz Garcia, 34, was arrested April 27 and charged with resisting arrest, providing a false name to law enforcement and grand theft of a vessel. Monroe County Sheriff’s Office deputies said the case began when a resident spotted a man arrive on a PWC, then tell a witness he had been on a tour and was lost before leaving on foot.

That first encounter mattered because it gave deputies a head start on a moving situation that could have been written off as a confused boater. Instead, investigators say the suspicious arrival near Mile Marker 55 was connected to a stolen vessel, and the encounter escalated enough to include a machete element before Munoz Garcia was taken into custody.

The arrest fits a broader pattern in Monroe County, where the sheriff’s office says it patrols about 125 miles of islands linked by 42 bridges along U.S. 1, serves more than 2 million visitors a year and operates with a 530-person department that includes a Marine Unit, Major Crime Investigations Unit and SWAT team. With peak-season population swelling to about 150,000, deputies routinely rely on fast calls from residents, dockworkers and boaters to catch suspicious activity before it spreads.

Watercraft theft remains a real risk beyond the Keys. The National Insurance Crime Bureau reported Florida led the nation in watercraft thefts in 2022 with 891 cases, about 20% of the U.S. total, and said more than 54% of recovered watercraft are returned to owners within one week. In the island chain, where marinas, boat ramps and waterfront homes sit close to U.S. 1, even a single PWC theft can trigger a rapid law-enforcement response.

Monroe County has also spent the past few years chasing larger marine-theft operations. In 2023, officials said Operation Garmin started after deputies noticed more break-ins at marinas and boatyards, leading to 10 arrests, an 11th suspect on the run, at least $2.5 million in stolen devices and 122 charges in Monroe County alone. Keys Weekly later reported that Denzel Varona, identified in that case, was sentenced to three years in Florida state prison, followed by three years of supervision, 200 hours of community service and an anti-theft course.

For deputies, the Munoz Garcia case is another reminder that in the Keys, a brief encounter on the water can turn into a vessel theft, a pursuit and a weapons arrest in a matter of moments.