Free Republic

A man in a wheelchair and his female companion were arrested in an alleged shoplifting scheme at Best Buy in Lady Lake. Matthew Mehrhoff, 48, of Umatilla, was in a wheelchair in the store shortly before 11 a.m. Saturday and was being pushed by 21-year-old Miranda Sue Chapman, also of Umatilla, when store personnel noticed that the pair were behaving in a suspicious manner, according to an arrest report from the Lady Lake Police Department. They were seen on surveillance making contact with merchandise packaging followed by Mehrhoff placing an item in his jacket and zipping it up. Store personnel...

A one-legged man known by the alias “Ponce de Leon” was arrested with a gun after violating an injunction and getting into an altercation over a dog. Mario Arteaga, 62, who lives in the Harbor Hills community in Lady Lake, was arrested Monday evening by Lake County sheriff’s deputies after violating an injunction obtained by his neighbor. Arteaga was taken into custody at Marion County Road and Saddle Ridge Lane in Weirsdale, not far from Harbor Hills. Arteaga and a friend had been “antagonizing” a dog, 51-year-old John Michael Keenan, also of Harbor Hills, told deputies. Keenan asked Arteaga to...