Jennifer Gomez paints a rosy picture of her upbringing. Her mom was a neurologist. Her Dad is a psychiatrist.
She is the youngest of seven children.
She said all of her siblings are successful.
But as a child, she didn’t see their success as enviable.
She saw it as boring.
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She told Matt Austin and Ginger Gadsden on Florida’s Fourth Estate, when she thought of their lives she thought, “Your life looks really boring, going to work every day, doing these routine mundane things.”
She said she wanted excitement, and she found it in targeting wealthy homes and stealing some of their most prized possessions.
Altogether, she said she burglarized hundreds of homes: “I don’t actually know the number, I’m going solely by what the detectives said and what was in my paperwork. It was 200, on paper, documented, that you can find.”
Now Gomez is coming clean sharing her stories on social media and warning people to stop doing simple things that make them and their homes a target.
For starters she said to stop making assumptions, “These people would look at me in these neighborhoods, communicate with me, look me straight in the eyes, and never suspect anything because of the way that I look.”
She added, “Everybody that’s here to hurt you or cause you harm doesn’t look the way your mind thinks they look. There’s no stereotype.”
Gomez pointed out she lived in wealthy communities and had wealthy friends and that the things they do to protect themselves often helped her plot against them. She said signage indicating which surveillance company a homeowner used, notifications that they had a pet, and large bushes helped her better plan her home burglaries.
She said she also tried to target homes that were closer to the front of the community.
She pointed out, “The last thing I wanted was to burglarize a home and then be stuck way in the back of the neighborhood and have to come out and possibly pass police officers or whomever.”
However after breaking into hundreds of homes Gomez did eventually come across a homeowner, then police, and was arrested.
She said she spent time behind bars on three separate occasions and even gave birth to her child when she was incarcerated.
After getting out, Gomez said she turned her life around and is now committed to helping others avoid becoming a target.
You can learn more about Gomez on Florida’s Fourth Estate. You can download the podcast from wherever you listen to podcasts or watch anytime on News 6+.