BCSO: Disgruntled Former Employee Arrested for Damaging Eight Company Vehicles
By Wayne Ivey, Brevard Sheriff // July 12, 2026
Message from Sheriff Wayne Ivey
BREVARD COUNTY, FLORIDA – While there is no doubt that some crimes are easier to solve than others…some of them are even easier thanks to the criminals who commit them.
Recently, Deputies responded to American Air & Heat after employees showed up for work and found that 8 of their vehicles were damaged by what appeared to be projectiles fired from some type of firearm.
Surveillance cameras showed a male subject wearing a dark sweatshirt with a yellow/gold logo on the front, wearing knee pads, as he entered the property and fired some type of firearm at the vehicles.
Video from an adjacent video camera showed a male with what appeared to be the same clothing arriving and leaving on a sports bike.
As Agents from our General Crimes Unit began their investigation, they asked the business if there were any disgruntled employees and one name came up, Chase Hemenway, who was recently terminated from employment and expressed anger over the termination.
Hemenway even returned to the business stating that he was underpaid and was going to make it right.
In our business we call that a “clue” but the clues in this case got even better as the night of the crime, Hemenway was pulled over by Melbourne Police Department, not long after the suspect left the scene.
To make things even better, he was driving a motorbike without a license plate, wearing knee pads and a dark hoodie with a yellow/gold logo on the front.
Based on all of these great clues, probable cause was established for his arrest so Agents responded to his residence and saw a sports bike in the garage which surprisingly looked like the one the suspect was riding when the crime occurred.
Well as you might have guessed by now Hemenway got arrested and said that while he may have been in the area of the crime, and while the suspect does look like him, it was not him.
Oh yeah, I almost forgot that he was also discovered to have at his house a Valken M17 launcher and a box of projectiles that appeared eerily similar to the ones located in the damaged vehicles on scene…hmm, who would have ever guessed that?
Another great job by our Deputies, Agents, and our partners at Melbourne Police Department who collectively wrapped this case up quickly, and found justice for American Air & Heat.
We hope Hemenway enjoys his stay at Ivey’s Iron Bar Lodge where he hopefully learns that by committing crimes, you’re not making anything right.
– Sheriff Wayne Ivey
