A Wildwood man was being held on $72,000 bond after he was nabbed behind the wheel of a stolen pickup during an investigation into a burglary at Honey Baked Ham at Village Crossroads.
An employee arrived for work at 6:45 a.m. Friday and noticed a lock was missing from a PODS storage unit at the store, according to a report from the Lady Lake Police Department. Surveillance showed a red Ford pickup drive up to the unit, the driver get out and break the lock and look inside.
That same truck was spotted by a Lake County sheriff’s deputy at 9:40 p.m. Monday on Rolling Acres Road at Lady Lake Boulevard. The deputy followed the truck and initiated a traffic stop on Rolling Acres Road at the side entrance to the Rolling Acres Apartments.
The driver, later identified as 28-year-old Kendall Wayne Wilbanks, fled on foot in the direction of the apartment complex. As Wilbanks was climbing a four-foot fence, the deputy tasered him, after Wilbanks ignored commands to stop running.
The deputy turned to the truck and ordered a female passenger to remain in the vehicle, and while the deputy’s back was turned, Wilbanks got up and tried again to flee. The deputy attempted to taser him again, but the deputy did not get “good contact,” according to the arrest report. Wilbanks fled in the direction of the apartment complex and was found hiding in some bushes.
He was arrested on charges of grand theft auto, petit theft, resisting arrest and driving while license suspended. He was taken into custody and booked at the Lake County Jail.
Wilbanks had been arrested in 2016 in the theft of a carton of cigarettes at a Circle K.
