A homeless man in Leesburg was arrested after an officer found him sitting outside Sonic with a syringe of methamphetamine.
An officer noticed 31-year-old Billy Ray Hogans sitting on a bench at Sonic, located at 1806 Citrus Blvd., around 2 a.m. Wednesday, according to an arrest report from the Leesburg Police Department. Seeing the restaurant was closed, the officer approached him.
The officer then saw a hypodermic needle filled with a brown liquid on the table beside Hogans. He tried to cover it with his right hand, which was when the officer observed a black elastic band around his left arm. This was consistent with a method of injecting narcotics into the body, the report said.
During the interaction, Hogans stated he believed the syringe contained “ice,” or methamphetamine. He explained that he was sitting near a bus stop when a woman left the syringe next to him. She left without it, and he took it to avoid trouble with law enforcement, the report said.
The syringe was ultimately found to have .25mL of methamphetamine. Hogans was then arrested and searched, revealing a white cigarette box with a small baggie containing 1.8 grams of crystal methamphetamine. He claimed the woman at the bus stop left it behind, too, the report said.
Hogans was charged with possession of methamphetamine and transported to Lake County Jail. Bond was set at $5,000.
The Arkansas native was also arrested in June for trespassing at a McDonald’s to use the restroom, in March for trespassing at McDonald’s and in February for ordering food while trespassing at Wawa.