Homeless Man Breaks Into Home, Kills Puppy With Machete

A homeless man reportedly broke into a home and killed a puppy with a machete in Tampa Bay, Florida.

The accused, identified as Alexander Hernandez-Delgado Jr., 25, reportedly broke into a Dover home, located in the 12000 block of Wheeler Road, just before 7 p.m. on Dec. 1 through an unlocked door in the living room. He then reportedly ate food from the house and threw items around and killed a puppy with a machete, Tampa Bay Times reported.

The homeowner reportedly saw the man walking away from the house wearing one of their hats. Following this, he alerted the officers about the incident. When the deputies were first called to the home on Wheeler Road in Dover in response to a residential burglary call, they found the puppy inside a crate near the living room door and found that it had been stabbed with a machete.

Following this, the officers launched an investigation and located Hernandez-Delgado at a Dollar General on Valrico Road across the street from the house. When questioned about the incident, he admitted to being inside the house and was arrested there, WFLA-TV reported.

Hernandez-Delgado was then arrested and charged with armed burglary of a dwelling, petit theft, and aggravated cruelty to animals with a weapon. He is still in the Falkenburg Road Jail and his bail is set at $50,000.

“I have zero tolerance for abuse of any kind,” Sheriff Chad Chronister said. “Unfortunately, this is not the first case of animal cruelty we’ve seen recently. I can’t stress enough how important it is to me that these suspects face charges.”

“This suspect has a history of violent behavior in the area, and it is vital that he’s held accountable so he can’t continue to harm any innocent person or animal,” Chronister added.

In a similar but unrelated incident, a Texas man was arrested on Monday, March. 14, after police officers found that he repeatedly tortured and killed a puppy in a hotel room, as previously reported.

The accused, Tyler Hastings Berry, 27, was staying at the Doubletree Suites when the staff of the hotel found a dead dog in the suspect's room during clean-up. Officers handling the case recognized Berry’s name from two separate cases of animal cruelty. In the first case, the killing of a puppy was not adequately investigated since the staff threw away the puppy before an officer could come.

In the second case, two puppies died due to lack of medical care, with hypodermic needles found on the scene at another hotel. The puppies were found in the trash can of the hotel room on two separate days.

According to Berry’s girlfriend, Berry would order puppies and dogs online from Facebook. However, the dogs would then disappear after a few days.