Deltona woman, 20, arrested in connection with multiple car break-ins: deputies

DELTONA, Fla. - A Deltona woman is facing several charges after deputies say she broke into multiple cars just blocks from her own home. 

"I was bewildered by it, just bewildered," a homeowner who wished to remain anonymous told FOX 35. 

The woman said someone, whom she believed to have been a teenager, broke into cars at her home near Salem Court just after 8 a.m. Saturday.

"We could see them go to both vehicles, go down the driveway, and then come back up the driveway and get in them again," the homeowner said.

She reported the break-ins to the Volusia Sheriff’s Office. Deputies told her the thief tried to hotwire her Kia Soul.

She learned then what happened to her was part of something bigger. 

"The deputies were here just immediately and told us they had been working this area [as part of a car burglary investigation]. We had not known that at the time," the homeowner said.

And just when the homeowner thought it was all over, the woman popped up again on her surveillance camera hours later, just before she went to bed Saturday night.

"I looked and there she was, back again, in the vehicle, so I couldn't believe it," she said.

Deputies came back out and later that night a few blocks away arrested 20-year-old Danielle Fernandez who they suspected was committing the crimes.

Deputies had been keeping an eye on her, according to an incident report, believing she was responsible for multiple car break-ins in the area for at least a week. 

She told deputies the medications she takes cause her "to have a lapse in her memory" and to "wander around the neighborhood."

But the deputies weren’t buying the story and say she eventually "admitted to breaking into at least four (4) other vehicle … looking for items or money." 

The homeowner says she was relieved Fernandez was caught but will have a hard time moving past what happened. 

"Every time [the] video camera goes off, now we're jumping up to look at it, and I don't know how long it will take us to get past that," she said.

Fernandez bonded out of jail Sunday, just hours after her arrest, according to online jail records. She was rearrested on Monday as she faces additional charges.

FOX 35 stopped by Fernandez's home Monday evening to ask her questions about the arrest, and the person who answered the door had no comment.