GAINESVILLE, Fla. (WJW) – Police in Gainesville, Florida, have arrested a suspect who stole a large excavator and crashed it into a Walmart.
The suspect had also “drove through” a separate storage unit with the excavator, and took out multiple utility poles before crashing the construction vehicle into the Walmart, according to a Facebook post from the Gainesville Police Department.
The incident took place Sept. 11, officials said. No one was injured.
Police identified the suspect as 47-year-old Jesse Charles Smith, saying Smith had hotwired the excavator after finding it at a nearby construction site, local news outlet WUFT reported.
The outlet, citing police, said the suspect also entered the Walmart carrying a machete after crashing through one of the building’s walls.
Smith has been charged with grand theft, criminal mischief, armed trespassing and resisting arrest without violence, WUFT reported.
The suspect is currently being held at a Gainesville jail ahead of his trial, inmate records from Alachua County show.
