A homeless man was arrested after police caught him driving an unregistered vehicle without a valid driver’s license in Ocala on Sunday morning.
A Marion County sheriff’s deputy was patrolling at the 3800 block of NW Blichton Road when he observed a blue, two-door Toyota, according to an arrest report. The deputy ran the vehicle’s tag twice through FCIC/NCIC, which revealed that the tag had expired in June of 2016, the report stated. The deputy activated his emergency lights and conducted a traffic stop on the vehicle, and he made contact with the driver, 38-year-old Alexis Resto. After asking Resto for his identification, the deputy was told that his license was suspended. The deputy asked Resto what it was suspended for, to which Resto advised that it was for driving on a suspended license.
Resto was directed to step out of the vehicle and was placed under arrest. Upon running Resto through the teletype, it was discovered that Resto does not have a Florida driver’s license, only an identification card. It was also discovered that the tag attached to the Toyota he was driving was not assigned to the vehicle he was operating, but rather to a vehicle of a man from Inverness.
At the Marion County Jail, Resto advised he knew the vehicle was unregistered because he had just purchased it. He stated he planned on registering the vehicle during the week. The deputy asked Resto how he got the tag, to which Resto replied that the person he purchased the vehicle from provided him with the tag because he did not have one for it. Bond was set at $1,000.
