Angel Esteban Hernandez Cinto, a 31-year-old Florida resident from Guatemala, was arrested this week and charged with stealing 66 rolls of toilet paper from an Orlando hotel.
Orange County Deputy Sheriff Edgar Castillo documented the incident in a police report first reported by Fox 35 Orlando on Friday.
An arrest affidavit seen by The Washington Times indicates the episode unfolded Thursday morning outside a Marriott Hotel in Orlando where law enforcement was responding to a report of a “man stealing toilet paper.”
A security guard who spoke with the sheriff’s deputy said he was patrolling the area around the hotel when he saw a man pushing a garbage can toward their van, removing a trash bag from the receptacle and placing it into their vehicle, according to the affidavit.
The security guard said he “noticed the bag was full of unused toilet paper rolls that belonged to the hotel” and accordingly confronted the suspected thief, the sheriff’s deputy wrote.
The individual subsequently confessed to taking the toilet paper from the hotel upon being questioned by the sheriff’s deputy, according to the police report.
“Angel told me he knew a lady who was poor and had no job and was only taking the toilet paper to help her and her family,” Mr. Castillo recalled.
The security guard “counted 66 rolls of toilet paper which are each valued at 99 cents each,” Mr. Castillo mentioned in the affidavit.
“The toilet paper rolls were released back to the hotel,” he wrote.
The man was transported to Orange County Jail and charged with a felony count of theft from a public lodging establishment. He has since posted bond and ordered to appear in court at a date to be determined.
“Angel did not wish to notify the Guatemalan consulate,” the sheriff’s deputy wrote.
Policing filings did not list an attorney for the defendant who could be reached for comment.
Toilet paper has been in high demand across the U.S. as Americans stock up amid the global coronavirus pandemic causing consumers to “panic buy” essential items.
“You don’t have to buy so much,” President Trump told Americans last weekend. “Take it easy. Just relax.”
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