Florida deputies arrested Andrew Lee Jansen early Saturday after a medical call led them to a hospital parking lot and then to the man Colorado police wanted in the theft of a car and a dog. The 28-year-old was later taken to the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center while he awaits extradition to Colorado.
The Miami-Dade Sheriff's Office said deputies first responded around 3:40 a.m. to a medical call along Southwest 152nd Street, where Jansen allegedly tried to interfere with first responders from Miami-Dade Fire Rescue. Deputies said he ran off to avoid being captured, but an off-duty deputy working at Jackson South Hospital spotted him when he arrived there to check on his father and took him into custody.
The arrest closes a fast-moving Florida chapter in a Colorado case that began in April when Andrew Beckham said he hired Jansen through Trusted Housesitters while he expected to be deployed overseas by the Colorado Air National Guard. Beckham said Jansen started out sending regular texts and photos of Maverick, Beckham’s 11-year-old husky, and even seemed reliable enough that he trusted him with the house, the dog and the car.
Then, Beckham said, the messages stopped about a month into the stay. He checked his Nest doorbell camera and said he saw Jansen drag Maverick out of the door, walk to the car, back out and drive away. Beckham said the dog’s food and medication were left behind.
“All I saw was on my Nest doorbell camera that he dragged Maverick out of the door, walked to the car, backed out and drove away. I never saw anything else after that,” Beckham said. He said the image still sits with him. “That’s a very scary image for me. That is the face of somebody lying to me.”
Beckham said Denver police told him in early May that his car had been found in a parking garage. Maverick was found dead inside. He said the dog had been trapped in the car for a long time and had blood on his face, and investigators were still trying to figure out why and what happened.
Aurora police filed a felony warrant for Jansen’s arrest on motor vehicle theft and general theft. Beckham said he used Trusted Housesitters based on a recommendation and later learned Jansen had told him, “He wanted to see if Colorado would be a good option for him later on,” a line Beckham now reads very differently. “It looks like a happy image, it’s not,” he said of the early messages and photos.
The case has a point that makes it harder to dismiss than a simple theft report: a pet that Beckham treated like family did not come home. Beckham said he wants other families to look twice before trusting a stranger with their keys. “If [Jansen] were house-sitting again, I think people need to know. If [Jansen is] using other agencies, people need to know. Because he made Maverick suffer a lot,” he said. “Do yourself a favor and just pay some extra money to do a background check on somebody.”
Jansen remains in custody in Florida as Colorado authorities pursue extradition, leaving Beckham with a small measure of closure and a larger warning for anyone handing over a home, a car or a pet to a sitter they barely know.
