GAINESVILLE, FL (352today.com) – UPDATE: The Gainesville Police Department (GPD) has identified the person they took into custody in connection with the excavator theft and subsequent destruction. GPD arrested 47-year-old Jesse Charles Smith.
He’s facing multiple charges including grand theft, criminal mischief resulting in damage to property in excess of $1,000, resisting an officer, and trespass.
ORIGINAL: The Gainesville Police Department (GPD) worked a bizarre case Monday night.
GPD officers responded to the Walmart at 2900 SW 42nd Street (Butler Plaza). They say a person stole a large excavator, a piece of heavy machinery used on construction sites to dig holes and trenches and drove it around the southwest taking out power poles.
GPD says the person then drove it through the wall of the automotive section at Walmart.
Later officers discovered the person had also destroyed a storage unit at 2700 SW 40th Blvd.
Just before 9 p.m. Monday, GPD posted images on its Facebook page. As of this writing, that post has been shared more than a thousand times.
Officers took a person into custody.
They say no one was injured in this strange chain of events.
352today spoke to a local Walmart representative this morning who says the auto center will be open today despite the damage.