A convicted Florida sexual predator’s reentry into civilian life was a short one after he was arrested for removing his court-ordered GPS tracking device and discarding it in a convenience store garbage can, ending one whole day of freedom.
Albert Lee Gardner, 29, who is referred to as “Joker” in court records, possibly for his hideously tattooed face, had just been released from prison on July 7 where he had served about a nine-year sentence for lewd and lascivious battery with a victim 12-15 years old, according to the Hernando County Sheriff’s Office.
Gardner was taken into custody by sheriff’s deputies on July 8 after it was noticed that the tracking device had shown the career criminal at the 7-Eleven store on South Broad Street in Brooksville for an unusually long period of time.
The Florida “Joker” — 29-year-old Albert Gardner — cut off his GPS tracker and overdosed on narcotics the day after being released from prison following a nine-year sentence. He was rearrested for violating his probation.
More: https://t.co/YN9yNVPoy1 pic.twitter.com/sJTfBnr8nD
— WEAR ABC 3 (@weartv) July 18, 2023
Upon their arrival at the scene, deputies and a probation and parole officer quickly determined that Gardner was “nowhere” to be found. And after a search of “several different locations throughout the City of Brooksville” failed to turn up the missing “Joker,” they returned to the store.
HSCO deputies soon discovered the missing GPS device which had been discarded in the 7-Eleven’s garbage can and then caught a major break in the case when they received a call about a person who had overdosed less than a mile away from the convenience store.
When deputies arrived at the location, they found their man who was the one whose OD had prompted the call for help, administering Narcan to the sex pervert to reverse the effects of the drugs, saving his life but ending his brief stint of freedom.
“Deputies returned to the 7-Eleven, where the GPS device was still tracking, and located it in a garbage can on the property,” the HSCO said in a press release. “Minutes after locating the GPS device, deputies heard a call, regarding an overdose, being dispatched. The overdose was occurring at 635 W. Fort Dade Avenue in Brooksville. Deputies responded. Upon arrival, deputies observed the person who had overdosed was in fact, Albert Gardner.”
Gardner was transported to Bravera Health Brooksville and, after being cleared by doctors at the facility, was taken to the Hernando County Detention Center where he was booked without bond for the parole violation of tampering with the electronic monitoring device.
“At 13-years-old in 2007, Joker was listed on the Florida Department of Law Enforcement’s sexual predator list after receiving a delinquency adjudication with the charge of sexual battery on a victim under 12-years-old,” Northwest Florida’s WEAR News reported. “According to records, he received the guilty adjudication for sexual battery in June 2014 that came with the GPS tracking device as part of his probation.”
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