Boca Raton Man Charged With Stealing Running Car From Convenience Store Parking Lot

Michael Rocky Uwanawich (Photo: Palm Beach County Jail)

A 30-year-old Boca Raton man has been identified by police as the suspect in the alleged theft of a car left running in the parking lot of a Boynton Beach convenience store, leading to his arrest Wednesday.

Michael Rocky Uwanawich, of Boca Raton, is accused of grand theft of a motor vehicle, according to a probable cause affidavit filed by the Boynton Beach Police Department. The document alleges he drove away in a 2012 Hyundai Sonata from the lot of the BBMT Discount Beverage store on Nov. 16, 2025, and is also a person of interest in a similar vehicle theft in the same town.

According a police report, the vehicle’s owner had left the car unlocked with the engine running while he went inside the business on E. Gateway Boulevard. The victim told police he had the keys in his possession, but discovered the car missing when he returned minutes later. Surveillance footage would confirm the car was stolen in a matter of just 20 seconds.

The video showed a white male in a gray hoodie and dark pants entering the vehicle and driving it out of the lot, heading west on Gateway Boulevard. A license plate reader later located the car abandoned on the shoulder of I-95 in Broward County the same evening. It was ultimately towed by state troopers.

Investigators disseminated a still image from the video in a department bulletin and, on March 17, the store owner participated in a photo lineup and identified Uwanawich as the person he had seen making a purchase inside the business before walking back toward the parking lot, the report said. The owner told detectives he had direct face-to-face contact with the man at the register and would recognize him if seen again.

The report also references a similar alleged theft on Nov. 23, 2025, at a CVS store in Boynton Beach in which another vehicle was taken from a parking lot while left running. No charges have been filed against Uwanawich in that case, according to the affidavit. Uwanawich was arrested Wednesday under circumstances that were not detailed. He is also facing charges of simple battery filed by Boca Raton police, stemming from a domestic incident that occurred at his mother’s home in October 2025.

Uwanawich remained lodged in the Palm Beach County Jail on Thursday in lieu of $10,000 bail for the theft charge and $3,000 for the assault charge.