A skateboarder was arrested after a violent attack on a woman in the parking lot of a Publix grocery store in The Villages.
Thomas Robert Berent, 30, struck a woman who Wednesday morning was sitting in a broken down vehicle at the Publix at La Plaza Grande, according to an arrest report from the Lady Lake Police Department. Berent and the woman had been arguing when he reached into the vehicle and struck her on the forehead and nose. He also slapped the woman, with whom he has been involved in an on-again off-again relationship for several years, the report indicated.
The Chicago native used his skateboard to shatter the back window of the woman’s vehicle to retrieve his belongings from it. He took his belongings and the skateboard and put them in his own vehicle which was parked nearby. He fled on foot before police arrived on the scene.
He was found the following morning sleeping in his vehicle, which was still in the Publix parking lot.
Berent was arrested on charges of battery and criminal mischief. He was booked without bond at the Lake County Jail.
