Gainesville Police arrested a homeless man Wednesday after police said he locked himself in a Wal-Mart bathroom and huffed aerosol cans.
Officers arrested 27-year-old Joshua Robert Padgett on charges of petit theft and trespassing, according to an arrest report.
At about 11 a.m., an employee of the Butler Plaza Wal-Mart found Padgett passed out on the floor of the men’s restroom, said GPD spokesman Officer Ben Tobias. He had an empty can of compressed air with him.
Officers found empty cans in the bathroom stall and a full can in his jacket. The cans were worth about $25 total.
Padgett admitted to stealing the cans and inhaling them until he was unconscious, according to the report.
In November, Wal-Mart employees trespassed Padgett. Padgett told officers he knew he wasn’t supposed to be on the property.
Officers booked Padgett into the jail, where he remained in lieu of a $22,000 bond.
[A version of this story ran on page 4 on 1/31/2014 under the headline "Man huffs air in Wal-Mart"]
