A 33-year-old illegal foreign national on the run from Romania has been captured in Florida and it’s all because of sharp police work and an alert jeweler in the state.
Police say that Marcu Rostas was arrested on Monday, August 25th in Florida after he allegedly stole a necklace from a jewelry store. He walked into the Beryl & Co Jewelers, 888 S. Colorado Ave. in Stuart, Florida just after 2:30 p.m., and asked to see several pieces of jewelry. He hid a necklace in his hand as the employee put the rest of the pieces away
He then left the store with the necklace and employees knew right away what he did. They called 911 and the Stuart Police Department responded and began looking for the suspect. Martin County Sheriff’s were notified that a dark-colored van involved with the theft was traveling across Florida.
Police identified his vehicle and stopped him as he was attempting to get on Florida’s Turnpike to leave the area. When stopped they identified him as someone who had warrants out of Michigan for first-degree retail fraud.
A deeper dig found that Rostas and his family, a wife, a 10-year-old son, and a 4-year-old daughter, had tried to come into the country on the Mexican border in 2021, were denied, were in the U.S. Virgin Islands in 2023, then came into the U.S.
The feds confirmed that Rostas and his family were given final orders to deport and go back to Romania. Big surprise. They didn’t. Rostas began using fake ID’s to conceal his identity. When he was arrested he had three of them on him.
As police were investigating the jewelry theft that led them to Rostas they noticed his family was ice’d out. His wife wearing high-end jewelry. His son had a $40k Rolex. His daughter had what is described as a “significant piece of jewelry” around her neck.
When Rostas’ vehicle was searched, deputies found a medium-sized stuffed animal pillow, which felt “awkward” so detectives opened the pillow and found about $400,000 worth of jewelry inside. They found Rolex watches, high-end jewelry, and diamonds inside the pillow and $33,000 in cash inside the car.
Rostas has been accused of crimes in Washington, Texas, Michigan, and across Florida. He’s being held right now in the Martin County Jail in Florida without bond on three counts of possessing a counterfeit driver’s license, three counts of possessing something that resembles a driver’s license, and two counts of giving false identification to law enforcement. His wife is not in custody at this time.
As for the Michigan warrants and ICE? Sheriff John Budensiek said a Sheriff from Michigan was ready to load some of his deputies on a plane and head down to Florida to bring Rostas back to Michigan.
“We’re going to get the first bite of the apple here in Martin County,” Budensiek said.
