A Leesburg man was arrested Monday for stealing a bucket of paint from Home Depot when an associate refused to refund him for it.
On the evening of Feb. 5, an officer with the Lady Lake Police Department responded to Home Depot, located at 871 N. U.S. Hwy. 27/441, according to an affidavit of probable cause out of Lake County.
Chadwick Bryan Callahan, 56, was observed over store surveillance video taking an empty shopping cart to the paint section. He left the paint section with a five-gallon bucket of paint and a paint brush in his cart before going to the returns desk. He tried to return the paint, telling the store associate he came to the store with the bucket of paint and providing a receipt with the same item listed, the affidavit said.
However, the receipt showed that the item had already been refunded. Callahan was denied the return, and he next left the store through the main entrance without paying for the paint. The total value of the bucket of paint was $212, the affidavit said.
The Home Depot Asset Protection Specialist gave Callahan’s information to officers and stated he was able to positively identify him from a previous Lake County arrest mugshot. Indeed, one of the officers had previously arrested Callahan in Dec. 2023 and was also able to recognize Callahan in the surveillance video, the affidavit said.
A search of Callahan’s criminal history showed he was arrested twice in late 2020 for theft and was convicted in both those cases, the affidavit said.
Callahan was ultimately arrested Monday night in Tavares by the Lake County Sheriff’s Office. He was charged with theft and transported to Lake County Jail with bond set at $2,500.