Homeless man charged with theft of $4500 sculpture

An employee of the Grand Bohemian Gallery on King Street reported the theft of a bronze horse sculpture yesterday valued at $4500.

As officers from the St Augustine Police Department were interviewing witnesses and conducting their investigation, a man stopped by the gallery and informed them that a man with a horse sculpture in a black suitcase just left the place of business a few minutes earlier.

Officers canvassed the area and found a man who fit the description provided by the informant. The man, 66-year-old Richard John Talach, was read his Constitutional Rights, then questioned, with consent, by police.

Police determined that Talach is homeless. He admitted to the investigator that he had taken the sculpture from the gallery earlier in the day, and officers located the piece in Talach’s suitcase.

The gallery decided to press grand theft charges against Talach; a third-degree felony. He was arrested and transported to the St Johns County Jail, where he remains in lieu of $10,000 bond.