Staff report

GAINESVILLE, Fla. – Lucious James Hines, Sr., 63, of Archer, was arrested yesterday and charged with stealing a Freightliner truck from his former employer.

At about 12:48 a.m. on March 15, an Alachua County Sheriff’s Deputy conducted a traffic stop on the truck, which Hines was reportedly driving on NE Waldo Road, and found that it had been reported stolen by the owner, a trucking company in Charlotte, NC.

Post Miranda, Hines reportedly said he had been driving for about two weeks and had come home on his day off, March 13. He said he told his employer that he wanted to quit to go to work for his cousin’s trucking company and denied stealing the truck.

The victim told the deputy that he had fired Hines on March 13 and that Hines had dropped the truck off at his company’s dirt lot in Charlotte and returned the keys. However, when a cleaning crew went to the lot to clean the truck the next day, they told him the truck was no longer there. The victim said he had reported the truck stolen to the Charlotte Police Department and provided GPS information from a tracker he had installed on the truck. The Charlotte Police Department reportedly confirmed that the victim is the registered owner of the truck and that Hines was the suspect in their report.

Hines has been charged with grand theft of a motor vehicle. He has 21 felony convictions (four violent) and seven misdemeanor convictions (four violent) and has served five state prison sentences, with his most recent release in 2013. Judge Luis Bustamante ordered him held on $10,000 bail.

Articles about arrests are based on reports from law enforcement agencies. The charges listed are taken from the arrest report and/or court records and are only accusations. All suspects are innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.