An 18-year-old Leesburg woman was arrested after she admitted to picking up a wallet containing more than $1,000 in a gas station parking lot and taking off with it.
Ketasia Devonna Puryear, of 1525 N. Lakeview Ave., was charged with grand theft of between $750 and $5,000. The wallet went missing the evening of Jan. 26 at the Circle K located at 100 W. Miller St. in Fruitland Park.
The owner of the wallet told a Fruitland Park Police officer his brother dropped him off at the front of the store and when he got out of the vehicle, his wallet fell out of his lap and landed outside the passenger side of the vehicle. He said when he went to check out, he noticed he didn’t have his wallet and went outside and couldn’t find it, according to the police report.
The victim said inside the wallet were two debit cards and about $1,100 in cash. He said he wanted to prosecute for theft and provided a written statement, the report said.
The officer reviewed surveillance video from inside the store and on the footage, at about 7:39 p.m., a tan Dodge pickup truck pulled up to the gas pumps and two females got out of the vehicle. At about 7:44 p.m., a female wearing a blue headpiece is seen picking up the wallet and getting back inside the truck and driving away, according to the report.
At around 11 p.m. Saturday, the officer was flagged down by Puryear and another woman at the same Circle K. Puryear said she was the female wearing the blue headpiece. After being read her Miranda warning, Puryear said she saw the wallet in the parking lot and admitted to taking it. She said when she opened the wallet and saw the victim’s ID information, she got scared and threw it in the area of Dixie Avenue and Berkman Street in Fruitland Park – after removing the $1,100 from it, the report said.
Puryear was arrested and taken to the Lake County Jail, where she was released the next day on $2,000 bond. She is scheduled to appear in Lake County Court on Feb. 22.
