A New Yorker was nabbed at Walmart after sneaking his elderly mother out of an assisted living facility.
Witnesses described quite a commotion Sunday afternoon at the Walmart at Buffalo Ridge Plaza in The Villages after 56-year-old James Lawrence Sicard of Astoria, N.Y. directed law enforcement to his mother, who was lying on a piece of foam in the back of silver Honda Odyssey minivan, with New Mexico license plates, according to an arrest report from the Sumter County Sheriff’s Office. Sicard “was acting erratic and not making much sense.”
Sicard, who works in props in the entertainment industry and whose television credits include “The Equalizer,” “The Gilded Age” and “The Good Fight,” had summoned law enforcement to the Walmart and indicated he would meet them near the garden section. When a deputy arrived on the scene, Sicard indicated he feared “getting in trouble.”
Sicard’s mother, a former TWA hostess, appeared to be confused and The Villages Public Safety Department was summoned to the scene. She did not realize she was in Florida and thought she was in Massachusetts. She was in need of medical care and was taken from the scene by an ambulance.
Deputies learned that Sicard snatched his mother from the Oak Manor assisted living facility in Largo, sneaking her out through a kitchen door. The assisted living staff informed deputies that Sicard’s mother is dependent on numerous medications and had missed necessary dosages since being removed from the facility by her son. Deputies noted that none of the woman’s medications were found in the minivan.
Sicard’s father died in 2006 after 48 years of marriage to his mother. The elder Sicard passed away in a nursing home in Massachusetts.
Sicard, who notes in his professional biography that he attended the University of Florida, was arrested on felony charges of neglect of an elderly person and interfering with custody. He was booked at the Sumter County Detention Center on $1,500 bond.
