A vehicle theft suspect was nabbed after allegedly crashing a stolen sport utility vehicle near Wawa in Oxford.
A 58-year-old Summerfield woman said she was at the Tiki Hut in Oxford on Sunday when her gold Chevy Equinox was stolen by 34-year-old Richard Shane Wills, also of Summerfield, according to an arrest report from the Wildwood Police Department.
The woman walked to the Wawa gas station and convenience store at County Road 466 and U.S. 301. When she got to Wawa, she saw her vehicle parked on the west side of the building. The vehicle had been involved in a traffic crash.
Wills was caught on surveillance ditching the damaged vehicle at Wawa.
Sumter County sheriff’s deputies found Wills walking on County Road 204. He claimed he knew nothing about the stolen vehicle.
Wills, who was arrested in 2021 after crashing into a pole at The Villages Charter School, was arrested on charges of grand theft auto and hit and run. He was booked at the Sumter County Detention Center on $8,000 bond.
Wills has a long criminal history:
• He was arrested in 2018 after a chase by law enforcement ended in a crash in Marion County.
• He was arrested in 2016 after he was spotted looking in windows of cars parked at Target at Rolling Acres Plaza in The Villages. At the time of that arrest he had a BB gun in his pants.
• His driver’s license has been revoked since 2007 and he has been classified as a habitual traffic offender
