The Brownwood Police Department issued the following press release Monday morning:
On Sunday, Feb. 12 at approximately 9:30 a.m., officers responded to a residence in the 900 block of 7th St. regarding a report of a burglary. The caller was walking his dog and noticed the front door of a residence standing open.
When officers arrived on scene they met with the caller and identified the residence in question. That residence was cleared, and no one was located inside.
The owner of the property was contacted and they arrived on scene and identified several pieces of property as missing. Tools, car parts, furniture and appliances were all identified along with a suspect vehicle description. Evidence was gathered and the case was turned over to the Criminal Investigations Division.
Later that day, at approximately 5:30 p.m., the victim reported to the police department that she located the suspect vehicle in 2500 block of Temple St. Officers were able to locate that vehicle traveling on the north side of town and initiated a traffic stop on Belle Plain. As the vehicle came to a stop, the passenger suddenly exited and ran from the scene. The driver of the vehicle was identified as 34-year-old Irene Nicole Hernandez of Brownwood.
Hernandez was interviewed and found to not have a valid drivers license. In addition to license issue, an odor of marijuana was detected inside the vehicle. Hernandez admitted to having purchased some of the property located inside the vehicle but denied having burglarized a residence. A search was conducted on the vehicle and a marijuana cigarette was located. Further inspection of the items in vehicle revealed several items labeled with the burglary victims information.
At that time, Hernandez was arrested and charged with No DL, and Theft of Property, greater than $100. Hernandez was transported to the Brown County Jail and the vehicle impounded.
Investigators continued to follow up on the burglary complaint and discovered that an item recovered from the vehicle was a military grade ballistic body armor. Under Texas law, it is prohibited for felons to possess this item. For this reason, a warrant was sought for Hernandez’s arrest and on Friday, March 3, Hernandez was arrested for Unlawful Possession of Body Armor by a Felon.
The burglary report remains active, and more arrests are anticipated.