A homeless man from Leesburg is behind bars months after he admitted to breaking into and spending the night at a local thrift shop and then stealing a U-Haul truck full of furniture from the store parking lot the next morning.
James Gregory Dunaway, 33, was charged with burglary of an unoccupied structure and grand theft of a vehicle valued between $20,000 and $100,000 in connection with the break-in. Dunaway was caught driving the stolen truck in Gainesville the next day and was in the Alachua County Jail before being arrested on the warrant by Lake County on Wednesday.
An employee of the 441 Thrift Store, located at 1541 U.S. Hwy. 441 in Leesburg, told a Leesburg police officer that around 9:30 p.m. on Aug. 31, 2021, he and another employee returned from an estate sale in Clermont with a 26-foot U-Haul truck full of furniture. He said they left the business at around 10 p.m., according to the arrest affidavit.
The victim said he returned to the store at around 8:45 a.m. the next day and found a rear plate glass window had been broken out and the truck had been stolen, along with some jewelry. The victim said he looked at surveillance video and saw a man, later identified as Dunaway, break in through the plate glass window at around 10:20 the previous night. He said Dunaway spent the night inside the business washing blood from his hands, sleeping on a love seat, using the bathroom, using the victim’s laptop, making coffee, and eating food from the business refrigerator, the report said.
The victim said the footage showed Dunaway leaving the building through the broken window, getting into the U-Haul truck and driving away. The U-Haul was a 2018 Ford F650 box-style truck valued at $65,000. The truck’s information was entered as stolen into a law enforcement database, according to the report.
At around 4:30 p.m. Sept. 1, a Gainesville police officer was alerted about a stolen U-Haul truck traveling on 34th Street. The officer conducted a traffic stop and spoke with Dunaway. When told the truck had been reported stolen, Dunaway said he knew and that he was trying to get to Kansas. He admitted to stealing the truck and its contents. Asked if he had a driver’s license, Dunaway said it was revoked seven years ago, the report said.
Dunaway told the officer he broke a window to a thrift shop in Leesburg and once inside, he stole the keys for the truck. He said he broke into the store to get away from the bugs and to get off his feet, which were hurting from blisters. Dunaway was arrested, taken to the Gainesville Police Department and later turned over to the custody of the Alachua County Jail, according to the report.
The victim said the truck contained a king-size bed and mattress valued at $499, a love seat valued at $179, and a couch valued at $199. He said items stolen from inside the business included a Churchill brand pocket watch with a train motif valued at $245, a gold necklace valued at $15 and a partially used tube of Natureplex Triple Antibiotic Ointment valued at about $2. The victim said the cost to replace the window was $585, the report said.
Dunaway is being held on $10,000 bond and will appear in Lake County Court on May 23.
