An unemployed Dunnellon man was arrested Tuesday after a Lake Weir minimart assistant manager reported a man stealing a carton of cigarettes from her store.
After speaking with the assistant manager at the Qwik King, located at 3820 SE Lake Weir Ave., Marion County sheriff’s deputies started looking for a white male with dark hair wearing a camouflage hat and matching shorts. They were told that the man, last seen near S. Pine Avenue, had attempted to purchase a carton of Newport 100s cigarettes valued at $52.99 but grabbed the item and ran out of the store when the manager turned away to run an empty gift card he had provided.
As a deputy was passing the Dollar General store at 3751 S. Pine Ave., he saw a white male matching the description of the man they were looking for running out of the woods from the direction of the Quik King. He got into a silver Saturn in the Dollar General parking lot and attempted to leave, a sheriff’s office report states.
A short time later, the deputy made contact with 26-year-old Elliot Neil Collins, who “immediately got very tense and upset.” The deputy also noted that an unopened carton of Newport 100s cigarettes was on the car’s floorboard.
Collins, who lives at 11828 Mayan Terr. in Dunnellon, initially denied taking the cigarettes and couldn’t tell the deputy where or when he purchased them. But after being positively identified by the Qwik King assistant manager, he told the deputy he had taken the cigarettes so he could sell them and raise money to take his daughter to the Sky Zone trampoline park, the report says, adding that Collins said he threw his camouflage hat into the woods while running from the store.
A check of Collin’s criminal record showed that he has three petit theft convictions, the most recent taking place on Jan. 22, 2015. And he also has two separate convictions for retail petit theft from March 16, 2015, the report states.
Collins, who has spent time in the Marion County Jail five times since May 2013, was transported to the facility and charged with larceny/petit theft (third or subsequent offense) and a probation violation for petit theft. He was held on $2,000 bond for the new charge and no bond on the probation violation.