Gainesville Police arrested three men accused of stealing a golf cart and trying to sell it online.
Police charged Devin Baulding, 18, Adrian McClendon Jr., 19, and Tarris Cox, 20, with grand theft and dealing in stolen property by use of the Internet.
At about 7 p.m. Monday, GPD officer Daniel Beans saw the men pushing an EZ GO 350 golf cart out of the woods near the Lamplighter Mobile Home Park, 5200 NE 39th Ave., according to a GPD arrest report.
Beans stopped to talk to the men and told them the golf cart may have been stolen. The men said they believed the cart was stolen, because it had been hot-wired.
They denied stealing the cart and said they found it in the woods.
As Beans questioned the men, officer Natalie Loveland was investigating a burglary where Raymond Hatch, a Gainesville resident, reported seeing a Craigslist post with his golf cart listed for sale Monday. The post had a phone number attached to the description.
Hatch, 51, said on Tuesday that two of his golf carts, one of which was recovered several days after it went missing, had been stolen Aug. 19. Hatch said his second cart, worth about $5,000, was equipped with a hitch, a radio and off-road tires.
Beans contacted Loveland, believing the cart may have been related to her case, according to the report.
Loveland described the cart, which matched the one Baulding, Cox and McClendon pushed out of the woods.
When Loveland and Hatch arrived at the scene, Hatch confirmed it was his cart.
Loveland then called the phone number from the Craigslist post. Baulding’s cellphone rang, and he picked up, according to the report.
Police arrested the men and booked them into Alachua County Jail early Tuesday morning. Of the three men, only Cox remained in jail Tuesday night with a bond set at $4,000.
Contact Chris Alcantara at calcantara@alligator.org.
