UPDATE: 10:00am July 25
- The Lee County Sheriff's Office released new video of the arrest of a man who they say drove a stolen U-Haul truck to the Lehigh Acres Walmart and ran through the store to avoid deputies.
- Investigators say it started Wednesday morning, with a report of a stolen U-Haul being spotted at the McDonald's at at 14985 Tamiami Trail.
Watch the interaction between the deputy and the man driving the truck:
- From there, deputies say they were able to track the U-Haul as it drove into the Walmart parking lot. Watch the sheriff's office video here:
- Deputies say the man got out of the U-Haul and ran into the store. Along the way, they say he dropped bags of evidence. Eventually, they say he ran out the back door of the store and into a wooded area.
Watch the video of his arrest:
- The sheriff's office says detectives located key fobs from other vehicles, part of an electric vehicle charger, and a trespass notice issued to Rodriguez by the Fort Myers Police Department.
Watch the video of detectives locating the bags:
- The Lee County Sheriff's Office says this is the man they arrested, Carlos Alberto Rodriguez
Original reporting from July 24
Lee County deputies describe a bizarre situation. They say a young man jumped out of a stolen vehicle when they tried to pull him over and ran into a Lehigh Acres Walmart to get away.
Lee County Community correspondent, Miyoshi Price, spoke to a woman sitting in the area when everything went down.
"Everything happened so fast, literally," says the Lehigh Acres resident.
She says she was sitting on a little park bench near the grocery pick-up and the Walmart entrance.
"The helicopter was on top of us," says the Lehigh Acres resident. "We were scared because we didn't know what was happening."
She says the man jumped out of one of these Uhaul trucks and ran inside the store.
"Then a bunch of cops came over to ask if we saw the guy, where he went, what he was wearing, and everything," says the Lehigh woman.
She tells me that the police acted quickly.
She tells us that even though it was scary. She was confident they would catch him.
We learned that he ran inside the Walmart and went out the back.
"It was scary," says the Lehigh woman. "It was the first time I had heard that before in Walmart."
Deputies used K9s and searched for the man from behind the Walmart.
Eventually, they chased him down and arrested him.
