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Friday, March 29, 2024

Venture back to truck stop lands Tampa man behind bars on trespassing charge

A Tampa man is behind bars in the Marion County Jail after he returned to a truck stop where he wasn’t welcome.

Gregory Allen Hice, 47, was arrested early Monday morning outside the Pilot Travel Center at 4032 W Hwy. 326 in Ocala after a Marion County sheriff’s deputy saw him standing on the sidewalk. The deputy recognized him from a previous incident when he had issued Hice a trespass warning, a sheriff’s office report states.

Gregory Allen Hice, 47, of Tampa, was arrested Monday at the Pilot Travel Center, at 4032 W Hwy. 326, and charged with petit theft and trespassing.

The Pilot’s manager told the deputy that Hice had taken a can of Four Loko beer from a cooler and placed it in a bag he was carrying before leaving the store without paying for it. The manager said the beverage was valued at $3.20, the report says.

After being read his rights, Hice admitted to putting the Four Loko beer in his bag but said he meant to put it back in the cooler and “may have forgotten” to do so. He was then placed under arrest and transported to the Marion County Jail.

Hice was charged with petit theft and trespassing and is scheduled to be released from the Marion County Jail on Sept. 9 at 9 a.m. and appear in court the following day.

Hice is no stranger to the Marion County legal system, having been arrested twice before. On July 29, he was adjudicated guilty on trespassing and open container charges and ordered to serve 15 days in the jail. He was released on Aug. 7 and still owes $1,257 in court costs.

In December 2018, Hice was found guilty of grand theft and sentenced to 10 months in the jail. He was released on July 1 and still owes court costs of $1,006.50.