Feb. 15--A South Florida locksmith is accused of pilfering from some of the same safes he was supposed to protect from thieves.
Eric Welch, 50, of Coconut Creek, was arrested Thursday in the back of a Home Depot in Margate after he allegedly cracked opened a safe full of cash that was bolted to a van's floorboard.
Welch knew about the safe because he was hired to work on it himself months earlier, according to investigators with the Broward Sheriff's Office and the Margate Police Department.
Welch is now accused of pulling off at least five other similar heists dating to 2009. The veteran locksmith appeared in bond court on Tuesday and was ordered to be held without bond on 13 charges including multiple counts of burglary and grand theft.
In most of the cases, Welch installed a secret combination on a safe he previously worked on, allowing him easy access to the loot on a later date, according to an arrest affidavit.
While investigators say cases like Welch's occur only sporadically, veterans in the lock and safe industry say a lack of regulation makes such things possible.
In Florida, like in most states, locksmiths aren't regulated, meaning there's no licensing, background check or training requirement. Authorities and lock and safe industry leaders say there's only so much a consumer can do to protect himself from a locksmith-gone-bad.
"There needs to be regulation as anybody can be a locksmith with a little training," said David Welter, of Welter Lock and Safe in Hollywood.
Officials with the Associated Locksmiths of America say most of the complaints against locksmiths are reports of price gauging and shoddy work performed by people with little to no experience.
But, Welch is an experienced locksmith who worked for LockAmerica in Pompano Beach for the past 18 years. On Tuesday, company owner C.J. Donofrio said the family business has never had a problem with Welch and described him as a highly skilled employee. The company is cooperating with investigators, Donofrio said.
"We are embarrassed. People have trusted us for 30 years," he said. "We still don't know what happened to him. It's like Jekyll and Hyde with him."
According to police and court records, Welch robbed the same Margate sports bar twice within two months starting in November. He has also been charged in similar safe burglaries in 2009 at three Wendy's restaurants in Fort Lauderdale. Details of the heists at the restaurants were not available Tuesday.
According to one of several arrest reports, Welch used a crowbar to break into Jesse's Xtreme Sports Bar in Margate on Nov. 12. Welch then walked directly to the safe and opened it using a secret combination he installed months earlier, the report states.
On Dec. 26, Welch returned to the same bar, this time smashing a glass door to get inside, the report says. Investigators said Welch confessed that he darted to the bar's office and used the same secret code again.
Authorities first made contact with Welch in early January after he tried to hire an undercover sheriff's deputy to steal a van used to transport cash to local ATMs, according to reports. Welch told the deputy he was hired to fix the safe months earlier and he installed a "bypass" code.
On Thursday morning, the deputy called Welch to tell him he found and stole the van. Welch met up with the deputy behind the Home Depot in the 1100 block of S. State Road 7 in Margate.
According to the deputy's report, Welch slipped into the back of the van and carried no tools. He punched in a secret code and the safe opened easily. When Welch turned around, an arrest team swooped in and handcuffed him.
Jesse Walcutt, the owner of the bar that was hit twice, said on Tuesday that the news of the arrest gives him peace of mind. He said he became a sleepless, paranoid wreck, suspecting his employees were behind the two heists. After checking all the alibis, Walcutt later convinced himself that somebody was hacking into his computer where he stored the safe's combination.
"It boggled my mind wondering how they were getting in," said Walcutt. "I thought of every angle and every person, but never thought about the locksmith."
Walcutt said he's been using LockAmerica for about a decade and never had a reason to distrust the company; the owners are old family friends. He said he will continue to work with the company, believing the incidents were the work of a rouge employee.
"It's disturbing," Walcutt said on Tuesday. "I am a very trusting person. I can't go on with life distrusting everyone."
Staff Writer Barbara Hijek contributed to this report.
[email protected]; 954-356-4605 or @GeoRodriguez on Twitter.
Protect yourself
Police and local lock and safe company officials say there is no surefire way to pick a locksmith, but there are some ways to boost your chances of picking a safe one.
Most auto clubs provide referrals to locksmiths. Most of the clubs require locksmith companies to undergo background checks and be licensed and insured.
Get referrals from friends and relatives who have had experiences with a locksmith.
Don't just call the first locksmith on the phone book. Websites such as http://www.findalocksmith.com provide searchable lists of members registered with the Associated Locksmiths of America.
Copyright 2012 - Sun Sentinel, Fort Lauderdale, Fla.