An auto salvage owner was taken into custody after Brevard County sheriff’s deputies and other law enforcement agents raided a Rockledge junkyard following an investigation into claims of racketeering and dealing in stolen property.
Deputies also arrested 13 undocumented workers during the Thursday, March 26, operation at Scrappy’s Auto Salvage, including at least one person from Afghanistan who investigators said had been making shipments back to the southwest Asian nation.
Charges against Theodore Robert Gross, 32, of Melbourne include use of or investing proceeds from racketeering activity; grand theft; scheming to defraud, operating a chop shop; and conducting or participating in enterprise through racketeering. He faces up to 5,000 counts on the various charges, jail records show.
Thursday, deputies checked the identification of the workers and took inventory as the employees looked on.
Further details about the business and its operations were expected to be released Friday.
“Everybody worked hard on this case,” Brevard County Sheriff Wayne Ivey said about the operation in a video released Thursday on Facebook.
The multi-agency investigation began when Brevard County deputies searched the business, located at 5044 Korbin Ave., in September 2025.
Deputies found 12 stolen cars at that time.
“He wasn’t properly vetting the vehicles,” Ivey said.
Gross remains held at the Brevard County Jail Complex without bond, Ivey said.
Gross and the other workers are expected to go before a judge Friday, March 27, for initial appearances.
J.D. Gallop is a criminal justice/breaking news reporter at FLORIDA TODAY. Contact Gallop at 321-917-4641, jgallop@floridatoday.com or X, formerly known as Twitter: @JDGallop.
This article originally appeared on Florida Today: Rockledge scrapyard owner arrested; suspected in chop shop operation
Reporting by J.D. Gallop, Florida Today / Florida Today
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