A Villager’s adult son has been ordered to enroll in an anti-shoplifting course after attempting to walk out of a store while wearing stolen shorts.
William Donald Najger, 56, who lives with his mother at 270 Arbella Loop, pleaded no contest to a charge of theft Tuesday in Lake County Court. He has been placed on probation for six months, ordered to enroll in an anti-shoplifting program and told to stay out of Belk at La Plaza Grande in The Villages.
Najger was spotted shortly before 2 p.m. Dec. 16 at the store wearing a brown pair of khaki shorts, according to an arrest report from the Lady Lake Police Department. A loss prevention officer noticed Najger when he walked into the store wearing a pair of gray shorts. Najger selected the darker khaki shorts, put them on in a fitting room and was wearing them when he attempted to walk out of the store. Najger had returned a hanger to the rack after leaving the fitting room. A check by the store’s loss prevention officer revealed Najger “left his old, dirty shorts” behind on the hanger, the arresting officer wrote in the report.
The officer noted that Najger “even took the time to take the tag off the stolen shorts and put them on his old shorts he put on a hanger and hung back on the rack.”
The police officer also noted the irony in the report that the stolen shorts cost $12 and Najger, who apparently splits his time between Florida and North Carolina, “had more money on his person than the shorts cost and could have easily paid for the shorts he stole.”
Najger admitted he attempted to steal the shorts “to see if he could get away with it.”
