A suspected shoplifter wearing the same hat he had worn during a heist days earlier was arrested Wednesday afternoon at Best Buy at Village Crossroads in Lady Lake.
Joseph Dewayne Pearsall, 39, of Eustis, entered the store at 2:23 p.m. Wednesday and put a Sony Extra Bass Bluetooth speaker under his black hoodie and left the store without paying for it, according to an arrest report from the Lady Lake Police Department. Pearsall got into the passenger side of a Saturn SUV which was waiting in the parking lot. As police approached Pearsall, they saw him remove the speaker from his clothing and place it on the floor of the vehicle. The speaker is valued at $249.99. He was handcuffed and taken into custody by police.
A Best Buy employee told officers that Pearsall had been captured on surveillance on Sunday stealing a similar product from the store. In the surveillance video, Pearsall was wearing the same hat he had been wearing Wednesday during his return trip.
He was arrested on a charge of retail theft and booked at the Lake County Jail. Bond was set at $1,000.
Pearsall had been arrested in 2018 by Lady Lake police when he was found to be in possession of methamphetamine.
