A member of the Sigma Phi Epsilon fraternity was arrested Thursday morning and charged with stealing almost $600 worth of plastic sheets from Home Depot.
Austin Mobley, a management sophomore, was arrested around 3 a.m. on charges of resisting merchant detainment, grand theft and scheming to defraud and obtain property. Mobley took the plastic sheets in preparation for a pool party his fraternity is throwing this weekend, according to police.
Mobley did not return a message seeking comment.
Carlos Gordian, president of the UF chapter of Sigma Phi Epsilon, said Mobley’s status within the fraternity is under review, and he will meet with a standards board.
“I just heard about this situation a few hours ago,” Gordian said. “I’ve been in meetings all evening and haven’t had time to get to the bottom of what happened.”
Mobley worked with two other people, according to Gainesville Police, whose investigation is still in progress.
“Other arrests are more than likely forthcoming,” said GPD spokeswoman Cpl. Angelina Valuri.
At about 6 p.m. Wednesday, Mobley and the two other people planned to steal six boxes of “Black Roll Out Plastic Sheeting” from the Home Depot at 5150 NW 13th St, police said.
The three men loaded the sheets on a cart near the garden center exit, and Mobley distracted a cashier as the other two people rolled the cart to the parking lot.
Security officers watched this on a surveillance video, according to police. Earlier Wednesday, employees from the Home Depot on Northwest 75th Street warned the employees of the Northwest 13th Street location about the three suspicious people.
Workers at the 75th Street store followed three people around the store before they left without buying anything.
In the parking lot at the 13th Street store, Mobley and the other two people loaded the sheets into the back of a car, but security officer Gaylord Wagaman confronted them.
They took the sheets out of the car and lingered for a few minutes, according to police. But the three suspects then got back in the car and drove off, hopping a curb and almost hitting several vehicles before speeding off on Northwest 13th Street.
Wagaman was on the phone with 911 when they left. From the surveillance video, GPD determined the car belonged to another fraternity member, whose name was not released.
Officers contacted Mobley on Thursday morning, and he turned himself in at the GPD Criminal Investigations Building.
Contact Tyler Jett at tjett@alligator.org and Samantha Shavell at sshavell@alilgator.org.
