A frequent Publix Liquor customer was arrested after returning on a booze run after leading law enforcement on a wild chase the previous day.
James Stevens, 50, of Oxford Oaks, who has a long history of arrests and has been classified as a habitual traffic offender, was at the Publix Liquor store at Southern Trace Plaza at about 8:30 p.m. Monday when a deputy noticed the headlights were not illuminated on his white Ford F-150 pickup, according to an arrest report from the Sumter County Sheriff’s Office.
The pickup turned north onto Southern Trace and the deputy activated his emergency lights and sirens and followed the pickup in the area of Evelyn Drive and Woodridge Drive in the Village of Polo Ridge. The deputy noted the pickup was driving in a “reckless manner, traveling through a highly populated neighborhood with no lights on at night.” Rather than stopping, the pickup traveled at a high rate of speed in an “obvious effort” to avoid arrest. The deputy ended the pursuit in adherence with agency policy.
The deputy returned to Publix and spoke with a manager who provided an image of the truck’s license plate…