Digest

13-year-old arrested in theft of mom's car

By Times Staff Writer
Published October 14, 2007

WESLEY CHAPEL - An old green pickup broke down in the center lane of Post Oak Boulevard sometime before 10 Friday night. A sheriff's deputy saw it and asked the driver what the problem was. The driver answered that the truck wouldn't start. When the deputy asked the driver how old he was, he said he was 13. The deputy called the owner of the truck, the driver's mother, who told the deputy her son didn't have permission to take the vehicle and that he'd done it before. The driver was arrested for grand theft auto.

Man charged in teens' stalking by cell phone

PORT RICHEY - Two 14-year-old girls received numerous phone calls over the course of several months from a man unknown to them who suggested he knew where they went to school and spoke suggestively to them, according to authorities. As a result, Jamie Michael Zotta, 31, of Port Richey, was arrested Friday and charged with two counts of aggravated stalking. He called the girls' cell phones about 250 times in a three-month period this year, "saying sexual things," a sheriff's report said.

Attempt to sell fake crack lands man in jail

DADE CITY - A 43-year-old local man, Jerry Lee Lewis, who according to a sheriff's report has no place of employment, was arrested Friday night for selling fake crack cocaine to an undercover deputy.

Teacher charged with having pot at school

NEW PORT RICHEY - A Ridgewood High School teacher was arrested Friday and charged with possession of marijuana on school grounds. A drug-sniffing dog was drawn to a car in the school parking lot registered to Michael Allen Welch, 32, according to a sheriff's report, and a search of the car turned up marijuana. Welch admitted the marijuana was his and that he had used it.

[Last modified October 14, 2007, 00:12:22]