News and Investigations

Between April and July 2026, detectives with the Polk County Sheriff's Office investigated a series of vehicle burglaries that occurred within one mile of each other in the Poinciana area and resulted in the theft of personal property, bank cards, and personally identifiable information.

On April 19, 2026, PCSO deputies responded to a reported conveyance burglary on Redfin Drive in Kissimmee. The victim told deputies that an unknown suspect entered his unlocked vehicle and stole several items, including his key fob and a debit card. Deputies learned that the suspect also entered two additional vehicles belonging to residents of the same household. From one vehicle, the suspect stole a Social Security card and multiple bank cards, attempted to use the stolen cards to make fraudulent transactions, and moved the victim's purse. From the third vehicle, the suspect stole a wallet containing multiple bank cards.

On May 17, 2026, another victim on Redfin Drive reported that an unknown suspect unlawfully entered his company vehicle, which was parked in his driveway, and stole a backpack containing a laptop charger, along with the vehicle's registration card.

On June 15, 2026, a victim a few roads down on Pilchard Court contacted deputies after discovering that the front passenger door of her vehicle had been partially opened. Upon further investigation, she realized that luggage had been stolen from inside the vehicle.

On July 24, 2026, two additional victims reported a vehicle burglary on Sail Ct, another nearby neighborhood. The suspect stole a driver's license, six debit and credit cards, a school bag containing an Apple MacBook and a Dell laptop, and a purse from the vehicle.

Through investigative efforts and the review of surveillance video, PCSO detectives identified the suspect as 17-year-old Nichele Pierce and executed a search warrant at her residence on Tench Court in Kissimmee. During the search, detectives located clothing matching that worn by the suspect in surveillance footage. They also found a dog matching the description of one seen accompanying the suspect in one of the videos.

Detectives recovered numerous items of personally identifiable information (PII), including Social Security cards, debit cards, credit cards, driver's licenses, and insurance cards belonging to multiple victims.

When interviewed by detectives, Pierce admitted to committing all of the above vehicle burglaries and also confessed to attempting to use the victims' stolen debit and credit cards to make fraudulent transactions.

Pierce was arrested and transported to the Polk County Jail. She was charged with 8 counts of unoccupied burglary (F3), grand theft (F3), 4 counts of petit theft (M2), 3 counts of fraudulent use of credit cards (F3), unlawful possession of personal identification information (F3), theft of a credit card (M1), unlawful use of a 2-way communication device (F2), and 4 counts of loitering (M2).

“If this example isn’t enough to convince you how important it is to lock your car doors at all times and remove your valuables, then I don’t know what is. Locking your car takes one second, but it can take months or years to get your identity back if it’s stolen and to fix your credit card and banking information when it’s illegally accessed. Lock it, or lose it.” – Grady Judd, Sheriff