Holmes Beach police arrested a 48-year-old man who moved to the state several years ago but failed to obtain a Florida driver’s license.
A police report stated the man’s car contained a duffel bag with “several burglary tools, including a pry bar, screw drivers, flashlights, a propane fuel container, two hats and some glass bottles.”
The arrest took place at about 11:30 p.m. Dec. 1 in the 6100 block of Holmes Boulevard.
An officer took notice of the man in the Nissan Maxima at about 10:40 p.m. that night, when he saw the vehicle parked on the roadside near a vacant home in the 8300 block of Marina Drive.
The officer checked the home to make sure it was locked.
Thirty minutes later, the officer saw the silver Maxima traveling south in the 5400 block of Marina Drive. The driver was “making evasive maneuvers,” the Holmes Beach Police Department report stated.
In the 6100 block of Holmes Boulevard, the officer stopped the driver for allegedly failing to wear his seatbelt. The report stated that the driver presented an Illinois driver’s license despite having moved to Florida several years ago.
The driver “began changing his story several times when asked where he was coming from and where he was going,” the HBPD report stated.
Asked why he had been parked on Marina Drive, the man allegedly said he wanted to walk to the beach.
“When asked why he would park so far from the beach … he began making up a new story,” the report stated.
The man, who said he was a landscaper, was handcuffed “for violation of non-resident requirements for his driver’s license.”
In addition to the tools, HBPD found two Razor scooters in the vehicle, as well as another duffle bag containing cables and DVDs.
The incident remains under investigation by HBPD, which has received reports of a series of vehicle and home break-ins in recent months.