A woman who was sleeping in her car was arrested late Monday evening at the Walmart in Leesburg.
The manager of the store on Citrus Boulevard contacted law enforcement to have people sleeping in their vehicles trespassed from the parking lot.
An officer did a computer check that showed a grey Toyota Corolla had a plate that expired in 2020. The check showed the owner to be 57-year-old Rosalind Ruth Jennings, whose driver’s license had also expired in 2020.
When the officer approached the Toyota, he used his flashlight to see if someone was in the car and spotted Jennings asleep in the backseat. Jennings woke up and demanded to know why a light was shining in her car disturbing her sleep, according to the arrest report. She got out of the car and told the officer that she did not have to sleep in the Walmart parking lot, that she, “has a real job, but needs to be paid.” She became irate when the officer told her the manager wanted her trespassed from the parking lot. When asked for identification, she sat in the driver’s seat and started looking through her purse. She closed the car door, started the engine and started to drive away. After being told to stop the car, she put it in reverse, forcing the officer to step away to avoid being hit. A second officer in his patrol car was able to stop Jennings near the entrance to the parking lot where Jennings was taken into custody.
Jennings was placed under arrest and was booked at the Lake County Jail on charges of resisting arrest and operating a vehicle with an expired driver’s license. Bond was set at $1,500.
