A Park Vista High School football standout was arrested on charges of armed burglary and theft of a firearm late Monday, just months before his college career was to get underway.

Jake Collins, a senior athlete who had signed to play at Duquesne University, is accused of stealing a gun and jewelry from the suburban Lake Worth home of a Palm Beach County sheriff’s officer, according to a sheriff’s report.

Investigators say they recovered the officer’s weapon and two others from Collins’ closet at his home. The 18-year-old pawned some of the jewelry to shops in Boynton Beach and Lake Worth, the sheriff’s report said.

Collins appeared in court Tuesday morning, where a judge set his bond at a total of $32,000 on the charges he faces, which also include fraud, larceny and dealing in stolen property.

A woman who identified herself as Collins’ mother stressed to the judge that the incident was her son’s first offense.

“He’s a good boy,” she said. “I don’t understand.”

Duquesne, a private college in Pittsburgh, said it was aware of Collins’ arrest. Jerry Schmitt, the school’s head football coach, said the university would gather more information before deciding on his status.

“I’m very disappointed,” Park Vista coach Brian Dodds said of Collins’ arrest.

Collins is the Palm Beach Post’s No. 16-ranked football player in the Class of 2018. He was an All-Area honorable mention selection for the Cobras last season. He finished his Park Vista career with 142 tackles, 10 interceptions, five forced fumbles and eight pass break-ups.

The PBSO report said Collins broke into the suburban Lake Worth home Friday. According to the sheriff’s report, he was caught on video removing the screen to the garage window, opening the window and then entering the home. After leaving the home, he got into a waiting car and drove away.

The theft was reported Monday afternoon after the victims returned home. Collins was apprehended at his Lake Worth home after he was identified as the suspect.

The report said Collins confessed to taking three firearms from the home — a gun with the PBSO insignia on it, as well as a silver revolver and a semiautomatic handgun — and that officers would find the first two in his closet, along with what the report called “an additional firearm which he purchased from an unknown associate off the street that may or may not be stolen.”

Investigators found the three guns in the closet. Collins told them he had already sold the semiautomatic gun taken in the burglary “to an associate for $100 cash,” according to the report.

PBSO also found that Collins on Saturday had pawned for $20 a $1,500 man’s watch he took from the home. Collins also told authorities he took two pairs of Beats headphones from the home and that he had given both to friends, according to the report.

Park Vista High School football standout Jake Collins has been charged a second time this week with burglarizing guns and other items from homes in suburban Lake Worth, according to jail and court records. 

Collins, a senior who had signed to play at Duquesne University, now is charged with stealing from a home near his own that’s been empty since its owners died. Judge Ted Booras ordered him held without bail during a bond hearing Friday at the Palm Beach County Jail. 

He was booked at about 5 p.m. Thursday into the Palm Beach County Jail, just 38 hours after he was released at 3 a.m. Wednesday on the previous charge of burglarizing the home of a Palm Beach County sheriff’s deputy. 

In the first case, Collins is accused of having stolen guns and jewelry Friday from the deputy’s home, about a mile away from where Collins lives.

Investigators say they recovered the deputy’s weapon and two others from Collins’ closet at his home. The 18-year-old pawned some of the jewelry to shops in the Boynton Beach and Lake Worth areas, the sheriff’s report said. The victims reported the theft after they returned home Monday afternoon.

The report said Collins confessed to taking three firearms from the home and investigators found three in his closet. He said he’d already sold one he had taken from the deputy. 

Investigators said they then found Collins had pawned items that didn’t come from the deputy’s home: a gold necklace, a 55-inch television, and a high-end watch. And they had the problem of the fourth gun, a revolver he said he bought on the street. 

Then an acquaintance of Collins told investigators that Collins had shown him a gun he said he stole from a nearby home whose owner had died.

Investigators checked the neighborhood for recently deceased owners and found a home that had been vacant, but not yet emptied, since the owner died at age 90 in February. The man’s wife had died in 2016. 

The trustee, a 28-year-old granddaughter who lives in Naples, told investigators she still was cleaning out the home and settling the estate. She said she last had been there about three weeks earlier but a niece had been there two weeks before the break-in. She said her grandfather did own a gun; its description matched one found in Collins’ home. 

Deputies searched the couple’s home and found that the TV and the gun were not there, and that a jewelry box had been rifled.

The granddaughter told investigators she did not know Collins. Contacted Friday by the Palm Beach Post, she declined to comment. 

Booras ordered Collins held on one charge of armed burglary of a home, three charges of grand theft of a firearm, and one charge each of dealing in stolen property, fraudulently pawning items worth $300 or more and grand theft of between $300 and $5,000.

Officials of Duquesne, a private college in Pittsburgh, said this week the school was aware of Collins’ first arrest and that officials there were gathering information before deciding his status. Collins originally had committed to the University of South Florida in Tampa before choosing Duquesne. 

Collins is the Palm Beach Post’s No. 16-ranked football player in the Class of 2018. He was an All-Area honorable mention selection for the Cobras last season. He finished his career at Park Vista, a suburban Boynton Beach school, with 142 tackles, 10 interceptions, five forced fumbles and eight pass break-ups.

Staff writers Julius Whigham II and Jodie Wagner and staff researcher Melanie Mena contributed to this story.