Man posing as BSO deputy burglarizes Tamarac woman’s home

TAMARAC, Fla. – Police are searching for a man who posed as a Broward Sheriff’s Office deputy before burglarizing a woman’s home in the Sanibel neighborhood of Tamarac.

According to BSO, home surveillance video from Lisa Lytle’s Tamarac home on Sanibel Drive captured a man announcing himself as a BSO deputy seconds before he smashed her glass door.

The surveillance video captured him saying out loud, “Broward Sheriff’s Office, is anyone home?”

Then, the alleged burglar entered the home and stole precious items from within it.

“When I see the video footage of him coming up the stairs and physically in my house, it’s very scary,” Lytle said.

According to Lytle, after the man shattered the glass door, (which she now has shuttered), he meticulously disabled and stole every security camera inside of her home, as well as her designer sunglasses and a watch.

Although some of what he stole are replaceable, two things are not — her sense of safety and a family heirloom.

“The main thing was a family heirloom,” she said. “It was a diamond heart necklace that was passed down from generations in my family. It went to me, and it supposed to go to my daughter, and onto my granddaughter, and it’s gone.”

When Lytle got home about a half-hour after the burglar left, she called the police, who checked her home and filed a report before she started cleaning up the mess.

“The whole upstairs, all the drawers were empty,” she said. “The jewelry box was torn apart it. It was a mess up there.”

Lytle said she’s relieved she wasn’t home to hear that deceptive, criminal voice in real-time.

“Normally, I would be home at that time, and I’d probably be up in my bedroom at that time,” she said. “Just the thought — that scares me even more.”

If you have any information that can help detectives, you are urged to call Broward Crime Stoppers at (954) 493-8477.


About the Author:

Saira Anwer joined the Local 10 News team in July 2018. Saira is two-time Emmy-nominated reporter and comes to South Florida from Madison, Wisconsin, where she was working as a reporter and anchor.