A serial golf cart thief is a free man again after his latest stint in jail.

Jerry Michael Lay Jr., 52, who previously lived in The Villages, was released Dec. 9 from the Lake County Jail. He was sentenced to time already served.

This particular jail stint involved the theft of a  burgundy 2013 Yamaha golf cart with a Michigan license plate and Detroit Tigers’ windshield sticker in September 2023 at Spanish Springs Lanes.

A Lady Lake Police Department detective investigating that theft drove to Lay’s home in the San Leandro Villas. Accompanied by a Sumter County sheriff’s deputy, the detective found a partially dismantled golf cart in the villa community’s overflow parking area. It was a match of the golf cart stolen at Spanish Springs.

In June 2023, Lay was arrested in connection with the theft of a 2015 Yamaha golf cart at Lake Sumter Landing.  He recently avoided prison time in that case.

In 2019, Lay was arrested in connection with another stolen golf cart.

Before moving to The Villages, Lay had numerous arrests for grand theft of a motor vehicle, dating back to 1988, in Broward County.

In 2017, he was sentenced to prison time in a grand theft case in Lake County.