A man with a long criminal history was arrested at Wal-Mart at Buffalo Ridge Plaza in The Villages.
Eric Wayne Watson, 36, of Oxford, was spotted at 8 a.m. Wednesday walking through the store’s parking lot, according to an arrest report from the Sumter County Sheriff’s Office. He was arrested on a charge of trespassing, having been previously banned from the store.
Watson, who was taken into custody near the Home & Garden section, claimed he was never warned about the trespass order.
The store banned Watson in 2018 after he attempted to steal a backpack full of merchandise. He returned to the store last year and Watson was arrested when he attempted to steal fishing lures and a bottle of vodka.
Watson was arrested earlier this year when he woke up a woman by tapping on her window with a knife. He threatened to kill the woman, who he did not know.
Watson was arrested in 2018 after paying an unwanted visit to a store at Southern Trace Plaza from which he had also been banned. In 2014, Watson was arrested after punching a woman in the nose on Christmas Day.
Watson was booked at the Sumter County Detention Center on $2,000 bond.
