A man in a stolen car was arrested in the parking lot of a store in downtown Wildwood.
A store manager at Family Dollar on Main Street called law enforcement at about 10 p.m. Sunday to report a suspicious vehicle in the parking lot. A check of the license plate revealed the car had been reported stolen in Orange County.
Juan Esteban Espinosa, 21, was sleeping in the driver’s seat of the car and an officer had to make “multiple attempts” to wake him up, according to an arrest report from the Wildwood Police Department.
Espinosa told the officer he “was on his way home but was too tired to drive home due to the fact that he was high from smoking too much marijuana,” the report said.
He claimed the car belonged to his aunt and she had allowed him to borrow it. He said he borrowed the car to drive from Orlando to Wildwood to smoke marijuana with a friend. Three grams of marijuana and a grinder were found in the vehicle.
The officer also found that Espinosa was driving on a suspended license because he had failed to pay a ticket.
Espinosa was arrested on charges of motor vehicle theft, driving while license suspended, possession of marijuana and possession of drug equipment. He was booked at the Sumter County Detention Center on $5,000 bond.
