A Villager’s grown son reportedly attempted shoplifting in Florida’s Friendliest Hometown “to see if he could get away with it.”
William Donald Najger, 56, who lives with his mother at 270 Arbella Loop, was spotted shortly before 2 p.m. Wednesday wearing a brown pair of khaki shorts at Belk at La Plaza Grande, according to an arrest report from the Lady Lake Police Department.
A loss prevention officer noticed Najger when he walked into the store wearing a pair of gray shorts. Najger selected the darker khaki shorts, put them on in a fitting room and attempted to walk out of the store wearing them. Najger had returned a hanger to the rack after leaving the fitting room and a check revealed he “left his old, dirty shorts” behind on the hanger, the arresting officer wrote in the report.
The officer noted that Najger “even took the time to take the tag off the stolen shorts and put them on his old shorts he put on a hanger and hung back on the rack.”
The police officer also noted the irony in the report that the stolen shorts cost $12 and Najger, who apparently splits his time between Florida and North Carolina, “had more money on his person than the shorts cost and could have easily paid for the shorts he stole.”
Najger admitted he attempted to steal the shorts “to see if he could get away with it.”
Najger has been ordered to appear Jan. 2 in Lake County Court to answer to the shoplifting charge.
His mother has owned her home in The Villages for 10 years.
