A suspect has been arrested in a carjacking which occurred near the Taco Bell located at Winn-Dixie Plaza in Leesburg.
A woman was sitting in her Chevy Tahoe a little after 6 p.m. Jan. 18 in the Winn-Dixie Plaza parking lot eating some food from Taco Bell, according to an arrest report from the Leesburg Police Department.
A man, later identified as 44-year-old Jayson Todd Locke, opened the SUV’s door and demanded that the woman surrender the vehicle to him.
She told police officers who responded to her 911 call that the man was very agitated and yelling at her to give him the vehicle, according to the report. When Locke threatened to take the woman with him, the woman grabbed her purse and got out of the vehicle. Locke drove away in the woman’s SUV. Police searched for the vehicle that night, but were unsuccessful in locating it.
The woman’s son, armed with his mother’s description of the carjacker, went to the gas station near the site of the carjacking and talked to the employee who was working that afternoon. The son described the suspect and the employee said that a man matching the description left a bicycle near the gas station.
Acting on the information, police searched the area and found the bicycle along with a backpack. The backpack’s contents included information which indicated it belonged to Locke. The police created a photo lineup from which the woman identified Locke as the person who stole her SUV.
Locke was arrested and the SUV was recovered late Wednesday afternoon.
Locke was booked at the Lake County Jail on a felony charge of carjacking. Bond was set at $25,000.
