Leonardo Carbo was hired as a police officer in Hialeah Gardens, Florida, on June 27, 2022. Just over three months later he was out of the job and under arrest. How did he fall so far so fast? The Miami Herald reported that the officer, 30, who also reportedly once ran a failed martial arts studio in the city, hardly waited two months into the job before allegedly committing acts of theft and misconduct. Carbo was arrested on Oct. 5, 2022, on counts of credit card fraud, petit theft, using a fake ID, and pawning service weapons.

The arrest report in the case indicated that police had found evidence of Carbo taking police-issued guns and pawning them to a local shop for hundreds of dollars at a time. He allegedly made his first stop to the pawn shop on Aug. 18, around 8 weeks after being hired by the Hialeah Gardens PD. There he allegedly sold off a .40-caliber Glock given to him by the department for no less than $300. Yet, despite the vanishing of one of their service weapons, no one at the department appeared to become suspicious enough to catch on. So oblivious was the department to the alleged criminal activity that Carbo was reportedly able to visit the pawn shop another three times in Aug. and Sep. of 2022, selling off another department provided gun each time, including another Glock, a handgun, and even an AR-15. Yet despite the mounting alleged criminal activity, Carbo got away with it. Each time, Carbo allegedly raked in hundreds of dollars, for an estimated total of more than $1,200 in all by the end of his alleged crime spree.

It was around mid-Sep. 2022 however, that Carbo made a fateful decision. The then officer allegedly received a call from his partner, another officer identified by the Miami Herald as “Oscar.” Oscar later claimed to have told Carbo about a credit card he had accidentally left at a restaurant. Oscar was reportedly at the airport, getting ready to leave town and so was relying on his partner to help him out and reclaim his credit card for safekeeping. Oscar also claimed to have received a photo from Carbo confirming his receipt of the card from the restaurant. Then, on Oct. 1, 2022, Oscar reportedly called the department, telling them that his card had been used “fraudulently” at the pawnshop in question. Carbo was later accused of visiting the pawnshop on Sep. 30, where he allegedly used Oscar’s credit card to buy back one of the guns he had previously sold off and retrieve another. That was the incident that police allegedly unraveled Carbo’s accused pattern of criminality.

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