Janitor charged in heist of Revenue Dep’t hard drives

computer coding

A janitor who cleaned Department of Revenue offices and was looking for “video games” has been charged with taking external hard drives from the desks of workers.

The arrest was announced Tuesday by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement.

Andru Rae’sion Reed, 21, was charged with ‘offenses against intellectual property’ and ‘offenses against users of computer systems,’ both third degree felonies, after the department reported external hard drives had been stolen.

Reed worked for a company that provided janitorial services to the department in Tallahassee’s Southwood office complex, an investigative report said.

On March 30, agents spoke with Reed at his Tallahassee home and found four hard drives, which “contained confidential taxpayer information,” according to a news release.

“Reed said he had connected the hard drives to his Xbox to download video games without knowing what was on the hard drives,” the release said. “It appears that the information on the hard drives was not used or further shared, but computer forensic examinations continue.”

Reed was booked into the Leon County Jail Tuesday and later released on $2,500 bail, records show.

Jim Rosica

Jim Rosica is the Tallahassee-based Senior Editor for Florida Politics. He previously was the Tampa Tribune’s statehouse reporter. Before that, he covered three legislative sessions in Florida for The Associated Press. Jim graduated from law school in 2009 after spending nearly a decade covering courts for the Tallahassee Democrat, including reporting on the 2000 presidential recount. He can be reached at [email protected].



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