A homeless man with a stolen shopping cart was arrested after he was found in the early morning hours outside a Publix grocery store in The Villages.
Timothy Taylor, 54, was spotted at 2:40 a.m. Monday at the Publix at La Plaza Grande, according to an arrest report from the Lady Lake Police Department. Taylor, who was in possession of a Petco shopping cart, “immediately became alarmed and attempted to hide something” when he saw a police officer approaching him.
The officer ordered the Maryland native to raise his hands. When he complied, the officer saw that Taylor had a piece of foil with burnt residue and a cut orange straw containing a powdery substance. A search of Taylor’s possessions in the Petco shopping cart turned up a blue cut straw that also contained a powdery substance. A field test of the substance revealed it was fentanyl. Taylor later confessed to using both fentanyl and methamphetamine.
Taylor also admitted he had taken the shopping cart from a Petco at the nearby Rolling Acres Plaza shopping center. When he was initially spotted by police, Taylor had his cell phone plugged into an outlet at the grocery store…