'What took you so long?' suspect asks officer during burglary arrest

A man accused of burglarizing a vehicle apparently expected police to find him sooner.

When a West Palm Beach police officer placed 51-year-old Timothy Erin McQuillen in handcuffs early Wednesday and told him he was being arrested on burglary charges, the officer says McQuillen wondered aloud “what took me so long,” according to a probable cause affidavit. Police interpreted the remark as referring to the time it took officers to arrest him.

McQuillen is charged with three counts of burglary of an unoccupied vehicle and one count of grand theft between $750 and $5,000.

The investigation began Saturday after a man reported that someone entered his unlocked Kia at a West Palm Beach apartment complex and stole a Lenovo laptop, an Apple iPad, a gray backpack, 10 to 11 vehicle titles and about $800 to $900 in cash, the affidavit said. The property was valued at approximately $2,100.

Surveillance video allegedly showed a heavyset man in his 50s wearing glasses, a backward black hat, jean shorts and a backpack approaching the Kia at about 5:01 a.m. The man entered the driver’s side and later walked away carrying the victim’s gray backpack, police said.

Investigators said the same man was recorded pulling on the door handles of a Toyota RAV4 and Dodge Durango before entering the Kia.

Police connected McQuillen to the footage through an earlier encounter about a quarter mile from the burglary scene. Roughly two hours before the Kia was entered, a security officer at a neighboring condominium complex reported a man wearing a gray shirt and carrying a backpack trying to open vehicle doors.

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An officer found McQuillen nearby, according to the affidavit. Investigators later reviewed that officer’s body-camera recording and said McQuillen matched the man in the apartment complex surveillance footage, including distinctive tattoos on both forearms.

Police found McQuillen walking shortly before 1 a.m. Wednesday. After officers told him why he was being arrested, he made the comment questioning why it had taken so long, investigators said.

During an interview after being read his rights, McQuillen allegedly identified himself in surveillance stills showing the suspect walking through the complex before the Kia was burglarized.