A Lake County man who invited a homeless woman to stay at his house paid for that good deed by having his truck and large-screen TV stolen.
The man told a Lake County sheriff’s deputy who responded to his call for assistance on Sept. 4 that he allowed a homeless woman named “Kelly” to stay at his house. He did not know her last name.
He said he fell asleep about 7:30 p.m. that night. When he woke up, the woman and his truck were missing, according to an affidavit of probable cause filed by a Lake County detective assigned to the case.
The man had surveillance cameras in his home which had recorded Kelly taking a TV, cell phone and two car amplifiers, putting those items into the man’s Ford diesel truck and driving away. The man, who lives in Tavares, was contacted by the Eustis police who found his trunk in downtown Eustis the next day. He notified the Lake County deputy that he had recovered the truck and found one of the stolen amplifiers in the back seat. He also said the truck was not running properly.
The victim gave the detective a name for the woman and a Facebook page. The detective determined that the name given him was not the true name of the woman depicted in the Facebook account, but was in fact, 38-year-old Kelly Michelle Swain, who has several felony convictions.
Deputies arrested Swain this past Wednesday afternoon. She was charged with grand theft auto and grand theft and booked at the Lake County Jail on $4,000 bond.
