A 40-year-old Leesburg man jailed on St. Patrick’s Day for trying to break into a neighbor’s back yard is back in jail after being caught with marijuana and methamphetamine while standing outside a local pawn shop.
As he was during his previous arrest, Chad Eric Collins was shirtless on Sunday morning when a Leesburg police officer stopped for a red light at the intersection of U.S. Highways 441 and 27 saw him appearing to actively use narcotics in front of Value Pawn and Jewelry, 1378 W. North Blvd. The store was closed at the time, according to the police report.
When he saw the officer’s marked patrol vehicle, Collins placed a white bottle into his left pants pocket. The officer asked Collins what was in the bottle, and he replied it was a small amount of marijuana. Collins also told the officer he didn’t have a medical marijuana card and he also had a small amount of methamphetamine hidden inside a flashlight on the left side of his pants, the report said.
Collins, whose address is listed as 1305 Sunshine Ave., was searched by officers, who found a small clear plastic bag containing less than a gram of white powder inside the flashlight and about a gram of marijuana inside the white bottle. The white powder tested positive for methamphetamine, according to the report.
Collins, who has eight prior arrests in Lake County since 2019, was charged with possession of a controlled substance (methamphetamine) without a prescription and possession of less than 20 grams of marijuana. He was booked at the Leesburg police station and taken to the Lake County Jail, where he’s being held on $3,000 bond. Collins is scheduled to appear in Lake County Court on Oct. 31.
