A suspect has been arrested after allegedly stealing a pickup owned by a patient who had been admitted at the hospital in The Villages.
James Dale Wells, 51, of Summerfield, has been arrested on a charge of grand theft of a motor vehicle. He was taken into custody on a warrant charging him with the crime and booked Tuesday at the Sumter County Detention Center.
A man had driven his white Chevrolet pickup to UF Health Spanish Plaines Hospital in May and parked it in the northeast parking lot, according to an incident report from the Sumter County Sheriff’s Office. The man checked himself into the hospital.
The pickup disappeared from the hospital parking lot and was reported as stolen. In June, the pickup truck was found in Gadsen County. The men who were in possession of the truck indicated that had obtained it from Wells, who has a long criminal history. He was arrested in July when he was spotted driving a golf cart on an unauthorized roadway. At the time, he was in possession of fentanyl.
The owner of the stolen truck also found that a Chevy Corvette had been stolen from his home in Marion County. He indicated that Wells knew he had been hospitalized.