A wheelchair-bound man has been arrested in the theft of meat at a Publix grocery store in The Villages.
Thomas Dean Martin, 56, of Ocala, was in a wheelchair at about 1:45 p.m. Tuesday when he entered the store at Spanish Plaines Shopping Center, according to an arrest report from the Sumter County Sheriff’s Office.
He began selecting packages of meat and concealed them in his wheelchair. He went to a self-checkout lane and began scanning and bagging merchandise. However, he did not pay for the packaged meat, which had a total value of $175. He attempted to leave the store, but was confronted by Publix personnel…