DEPUTY’S RIFLE FOUND UNDER TEEN’S MATTRESS

PBSO: Suspect showed off weapon in a video, kept it under mattress.

BOYNTON BEACH — Videos posted on Instagram and witness statements led Boynton Beach police to find a Palm Beach County sheriff ’s deputy’s stolen assault rifle under a teen’s mattress.

City police arrested a 17-yearold Saturday on a burglary charge and said the teen was taken to the juvenile detention facility. It was unclear whether he remained there Monday. The Palm Beach Post is not naming the teen because he has not been charged as an adult at this time.

On Tuesday, a sheriff ’s deputy said he left his unmarked vehicle parked behind the Meadows Square shopping plaza off Congress Avenue and Hypoluxo Road. Once he got home hours later, he realized he was missing several items, including his XM-15 Bushmaster patrol rifle, three rifle magazines, a ballistic helmet, a gas mask and a rubber Glock training gun. The report does not indicate whether the deputy locked the vehicle before it allegedly was burglarized.

On Wednesday, police responded to the Meadows on the Green condominiums, just west of where the deputy’s car was parked. There, the property manager showed them a duffel bag that had police equipment inside.

From there, police questioned one man who said he knew of the crime and provided officers with the name of a witness. Police

then questioned the wit- ness, who reported watching two people walk with a duffel bag and rifle to a maroon Saturn driven by the teen. Police noted the two people described matched those they saw on surveillance video shot near the shopping center.

Eventually, police tracked down the teen driver in Riviera Beach and learned of his recent Instagram videos. In one video, police wrote, he showed off the assault rifle, dancing and rapping. In a live-streamed video, police said he made comments about the gun being in his home.

The videos were shown to the deputy, and he said it was his gun because of certain features, such as a white line below the safety switch.

After officers received a search warrant for the teen’s home, they found the weapon under his mattress and the three magazines in his bedroom closet.