A serial golf cart thief has avoided prison time after multiple thefts in The Villages.

Jerry Michael Lay Jr., 52, who most recently made his home in a rental unit in the San Leandro Villas, has a long history of snatching golf carts in Florida’s Friendliest Hometown.

He was recently sentenced to “time served” in Sumter County after stealing golf carts at Barnes & Noble at Lake Sumter Landing and at Enterprise Rental at Lake Sumter Landing. 

Lay was transferred on Friday to the Lake County Jail. In that county, he is facing a charge of stealing a golf cart last year from a bowling alley at Spanish Springs.

Lay has long been on the radar of local law enforcement. The golf cart theft arrests were due in part to surveillance images from strategically located cameras operated by The Villages. When law enforcement officers saw the golf cart thief in the surveillance, they knew it was Lay.

He was arrested in 2019 in connection with a golf cart stolen from a hotel in Spanish Springs. He served 210 days in jail in that case.

Lay was released from state prison in 2018 after a year and a half sentence for theft of a motor vehicle. His first arrested came in 1988 for theft of a motor vehicle in Broward County.