'Deadliest Catch' Alum Jerod Sechrist Arrested for Third Time in Six Months

Former Deadliest Catch star Jerod Sechrist was arrested for theft this week in Tampa, Florida. [...]

By Michael Hein

Former Deadliest Catch star Jerod Sechrist was arrested for theft this week in Tampa, Florida. According to a report by TMZ, this is Sechrist's third arrested in six months. Sechrist reportedly told police that he has repeatedly turned to crime to fuel his heroin addiction.

Sechrist is known to Deadliest Catch fans as a deckhand who was hard to get along with in three episodes of the series back in 2016. These days, he is apparently preoccupied with his legal battles as well as his health. He was arrested this week at a residence in Tampa on two outstanding felony warrants for grand theft. Sechrist was already on probation, so now he is being held in jail without bail.

One of the warrants that took Sechrist down was related to a massive theft from a former roommate. Sechrist allegedly took a Rolex watch, collectible coins and a bunch of silver from the roommate and sold it all at a pawn shop.

The other warrant was for an alleged theft at Home Depot. Sechrist was accused of trying to walk out of the store with about $800 worth of tools in a bucket, unpaid for. He was stopped outside by a security guard, at which point he dropped the bucket and ran away.

When he was finally arrested and brought in for questioning this week, police said that Sechrist was quick to pin the whole thing on his addiction. Sechrist said that he was sick with heroin withdrawals and had committed the crimes out of desperation for drug money. He asked the authorities for help in getting treatment.

Sechrist gave a similar story back in November, when he was arrested for shoplifting from an IKEA store in Tampa. At the time, he allegedly filled a shopping cart with about $1,034 worth of merchandise — mostly electronics — and walked out the door without paying. Police said he tied the cart to the back of a bicycle and pedaled away.

The month before that, Sechrist was arrested for heroin possession, again in the Tampa area. Police pulled him over on an existing warrant of reckless driving, but discovered heroin and drug paraphernalia in his possession.

Sechrist is not the first Deadliest Catch star to get himself into legal trouble. Last April, Captain "Wild Bill" Wichrowski told PopCulture.com that it is a hazard of the job. "It's harder to find excellent guys," he said at the time. "They used to be lined up 12 deep when we were making the crazy rock star money, but now it's almost easier to mold the ones you have and obviously, there's, throughout the fleet, there's addiction problems."

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