A Villager’s son arrested in the attempted theft of merchandise at Best Buy told police he tried to steal the items because he has no job and needed the money.
Richard Brown Street, 41, was released this past Friday from the Sumter County Detention Center after posting $3,000 bond. He had been lodged at the jail since July 9 following his arrest on drug charges by Wildwood police.
The day after he walked out of jail, he was arrested in the attempted theft of merchandise from Best Buy in Lady Lake.
An employee at the store grew suspicious Saturday after seeing Street walk into a restroom with merchandise. When Street came out of the bathroom, he placed a pair of Sony headphones back on the shelf and left the store, according to an arrest report from the Lady Lake Police Department.
When officers detained him in the store’s parking lot, he lifted his shirt to reveal a camera bag. He also had two flashlights stolen from the store.
Street told police he “was stealing items so he could sell them to make money because he did not have a job.” He was arrested on a charge of theft and booked at the Lake County Jail.
Street, who previously lived with his mother in the Village of Polo Ridge and now lists a Belleview address, has numerous previous arrests:
• The Washington D.C. native was arrested this past April with a backpack which contained needles and scoops with a white powdery residue. He was also driving on suspended license. That case is still pending in Sumter County Court.
• Street was arrested last year after stealing his mother’s Ford Escape from her home, a day after his father’s funeral. She’d left the car keys on the kitchen counter.
• Street was arrested in 2019 at the wheel of the same Ford Escape.