A vacant-home trespass arrest in The Villages has a connection to golf-cart theft in the suspect’s past, but the incident itself was not reported as a golf-cart theft. Villages-News reported that Patrick Ewel White, 43, was taken into custody Wednesday and faces trespassing and resisting-arrest charges. The account has not been independently corroborated here.
According to the outlet, Lady Lake officers went to a residential alarm in the Village of Silver Lake around 9:10 a.m. A neighbor reported seeing a man run across a nearby golf course; officers then saw White enter a vacant home for sale on Rainbow Boulevard. The report says he ignored commands to leave, tried to run out the back, and was struck by pepper-ball rounds and tased before officers detained him.
Villages-News also reported that dispatch found an active Marion County felony bench warrant during booking. White was treated by EMS, taken to UF Health Leesburg Hospital and then booked at the Lake County Jail, according to the outlet. It reported that White had previously served six months after a 2022 no-contest plea to grand theft of a motor vehicle involving a golf cart. That prior case is separate from the charges reported in Wednesday’s arrest.
The data has limits
Florida’s crime-reporting categories do not provide a golf-cart-only count in the classification cited here. The Florida Department of Law Enforcement’s UCR manual places golf carts in “Other Motor Vehicle,” alongside vehicles such as dune buggies and ATVs. That broad category cannot establish how often golf carts specifically are stolen.
Other cases can illustrate the issue without measuring its frequency. In a separate Lee County case, CBS12 reported that authorities received May 6 reports of suspicious activity that included golf-cart theft and property damage in the Hideaway community and at a nearby golf-course clubhouse. It is a different place and case, not evidence of a trend in The Villages.
For local owners, the Sumter County Sheriff’s Office offers voluntary golf-cart registration intended to help identify carts. The program is a practical identification measure; it does not, by itself, provide theft totals or show how common theft is.
