An Apopka man was arrested for theft after getting on a city bus with clothes stolen from Walmart in his backpack.
An officer responded to Walmart, located at 2501 Citrus Blvd., regarding a retail theft around 4:40 p.m. Friday, according to an arrest report from the Leesburg Police Department. Dispatch advised that the suspect, 51-year-old Antoine Lavern Jones, was getting onto a bus.
The officer also got on the bus and identified Jones as the only passenger who matched dispatch’s description of a man with a tan hat and gray backpack. After escorting him off the bus, he was detained. A subsequent search of his backpack yielded a six-pack of $21.98 XL men’s tank tops, the report said.
Loss prevention later stated Jones put the tank tops in his backpack and left through the garden department of the store. They tried to stop him, but he walked off the property to the bus stop, the report said.
A check of Jones’s criminal history revealed at least six prior convictions for theft, with the two most recent being on July 29, 2024, and March 2, 2022, the report said.
Jones was arrested on charge of retail theft (two or more prior theft). The New York native was booked at Lake County Jail with bond set at $2,500.