LAKELAND, Fla. – Tuesday night did not go according to plan for 66-year-old James Edward Seymour, a Lakeland resident whose extensive criminal history reads less like a rap sheet and more like an encyclopedia of what not to do.
The sequence of events kicked off around 9:42 p.m. on Tuesday, June 23, 2026, when a homeowner living near Deeson Road noticed a shadow moving across his property. Because the house sits well off the main roadway, finding an uninvited guest in the yard after dark is generally a red flag, prompting an immediate call to the Polk County Sheriff’s Office.
A deputy arrived shortly after and found Seymour still hanging out on the property. When asked what exactly he was doing in a stranger’s yard under the cover of night, Seymour offered an action-movie excuse: he claimed he was actively running for his life because he “was being chased by two guys with firearms.”…