Gio Milano went to the Paradise postal station and then for coffee at 6:30 a.m. at Circle K on La Grande Boulevard. It’s his usual routine.
“I let my wife sleep,” Milano said. His wife, Tina, is a leader of The Villages Original Belly Dancers.
But on the morning of Feb. 24 as he exited Circle K with his coffee in hand, he saw his 2013 Yahama golf cart being driven away.
“I couldn’t believe it,” said the Orange Blossom Gardens resident.
He spent two sleepless nights worrying about the fate of his golf cart.
“I had these visions of it being chopped up into a hundred pieces,” he said.
But then he was at the 15th hole at Orange Blossom Hills golf course, and the Rhode Island native received a call from the Lady Lake Police Department. He heard two precious words.
“Fully intact,” he said. “They told me it was fully intact.”
The golf cart had been discovered parked in a carport at a home on Cherry Hill Road. The home is frequently rented out, so the golf cart’s presence hadn’t aroused much suspicion from neighbors. It appeared that the golf cart was simply left there by the thief.
“I cannot say enough about the Lady Lake Police Department,” Milano said. “Especially Officer Shane Barrett. He really went above and beyond to help me get my golf cart back.”
