A community service aide played a key role in the capture of a suspect in the theft of an electric bicycle from Target at Rolling Acres Plaza in The Villages.
The E-bike was stolen last month after a woman rode it to Target and parked it in a bicycle rack at the store. Police distributed images of the suspect and a truck also believed to have been used in the theft of the E-bike.
Lady Lake Police Department Community Service Aide Michele Sloane at 11:10 a.m. Thursday spotted a teal GMC truck that resembled the vehicle connected to the E-bike theft at Target. Sloane, beloved for her many years of service working traffic at Villages Elementary of Lady Lake, continued to follow the truck and provided details of its movements before detectives caught up with it on Griffin Avenue. The driver of the truck was identified as 46-year-old Martin David Falls of Leesburg. He was positively identified as the subject captured in surveillance images at Target. He was arrested on a charge of felony grand theft.
A woman riding as a passenger in the truck initially provided a false name to police. Rapid ID was used to determine that she was 41-year-old Kristen Nicole Wireman of Leesburg and that she was wanted on two warrants.
Both were taken into custody and booked at the Lake County Jail.
