A man with the phrase “Crazy White Boy” tattooed on his forehead was tracked down after stealing a car and crashing it in the woods.
Kendall Wayne Wilbanks, 32, of Wildwood went to a childhood friend on Nov. 5 and persuaded her to lend him her fiance’s black Nissan Kicks valued at $32,000, according to an arrest report from the Fruitland Park Police Department. Wilbanks told her he needed to “go pick up his belongings from his girlfriend’s house.” He did not return the vehicle and the woman contacted law enforcement.
Two days later, officers followed up on a report that the vehicle had been spotted on Eagles Nest Road. When officers tried to catch up to the vehicle on Lake Unity Road, the vehicle was being driven “recklessly and passing other motorists on a double yellow line.” The driver was able to get away. The next day, a Lake County sheriff’s deputy spotted the stolen vehicle before it crashed in the woods. Wilbanks was taken into custody and booked at the Lake County Jail on $129,000 bond.
A search of the stolen car turned up a receipt for Western Union from Publix at Palm Plaza in Leesburg. An officer went to the store and checked store surveillance and connected Wilbanks to the receipt, thanks in part to his tattoos.
Wilbanks has a long criminal history and was arrested in November 2018 after he was nabbed behind the wheel of a stolen pickup during an investigation into a burglary at the Honey Baked Ham at Village Crossroads in Lady Lake. Wilbanks also was arrested in March 2016 after he was accused of stealing a carton of cigarettes and a Red Bull from a Lady Lake Circle K.
