A pair of Pennsylvania pallet workers were arrested at a Wildwood truck stop.
A Sumter County sheriff’s deputy at 3:08 a.m. Wednesday noticed a silver van backed into a parking spot in the parking lot at the TA Truck Stop on State Road 44. The driver’s side door of the van was standing wide open.
Two men, 55-year-old Paul Thomas Emerich and 56-year-old Howard Roy Emerich, were found sleeping in the van. Pipes consistent with marijuana use were spotted in the van, according to the arrest report.
A subsequent search of the van also turned up two containers of marijuana, a vape pen and a sticky substance determined to be THC concentrate.
Howard Emerich, of Reading, Pa. was wanted on Pennsylvania warrants charging him with false imprisonment and violating his probation. Paul Emerich, who was born in Reading, Pa. but was carrying a Kentucky identification card, was wanted on three Florida warrants, two from Fort Myers and one from Lee County.
Both men were wearing A1 Pallets, LLC T-shirts when they were taken into custody and booked at the Sumter County Detention Center.
