POLK COUNTY, Fla. – A Polk City man’s walk home from the store back in December took a costly turn when his wallet slipped out of his pocket unnoticed.
By the time he realized it was missing the following morning, his bank account had already been hit with a series of unauthorized charges. What he didn’t know then was that the trail would eventually lead straight to a Polk County Jail cell.
The Polk County Sheriff’s Office took up the case after the victim reported a total of $177.42 in fraudulent transactions at a nearby shop. A detective assigned to the investigation headed to the store to pull security footage, which captured a man caught in the act of using the stolen cards.
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While the face was clear on camera, the identity was a partial mystery; store employees recognized the man, but they only knew him by the name “Derek.”
After some investigative legwork, the detective successfully identified the suspect as 53-year-old James Derrick Wells, a resident of Polk City.
However, tracking him down for questioning turned out to be the easiest part of the job. When the detective went to find Wells on January 21, he didn’t have to look far. Wells was already in custody at the Polk County Jail on a completely unrelated charge of providing false identification to a law enforcement officer.
Confronted within the very walls where he was already being held, Wells now faces a long list of new legal headaches.
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The sheriff’s office has charged him with multiple felonies and misdemeanors, including criminal use of personal identification, illegal use of credit cards, and petit theft with prior convictions.
It appears that while Wells managed to find a lost wallet, his luck ran out the moment he stepped back into the view of a security camera.
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