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    • A man drove the stolen car to Mar-a-Lago to see Trump
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    A man drove the stolen car to Mar-a-Lago to see Trump

    Online Niel Posted on

    (This story has been updated to add new information.)

    A Florida man was arrested late Thursday night after Palm Beach police said he pulled over Mar-a-Lago and asked to speak to the president-elect Donald Trump — while driving a stolen car.

    This one scores at least the third person to be arrested at Mar-a-Lago this summer and comes as Trump’s club is packed with dignitaries and celebrities who are helping guide the president-elect during his transition into a second term in the White House.

    The 52-year-old Sarasota man faces charges of vehicle theft and operating a motor vehicle without a valid license, jail records show. He was being held at the Palm Beach Jail Friday morning on $20,250 bond, according to jail records.

    A judge also ordered the man to have no contact with Trump, Mar-a-Lago, the protected area around Mar-a-Lago or any of Trump’s other properties, records show. Also, the man cannot have any weapons.

    According to a Palm Beach police arrest report, the man drove a Hyundai Kona, a small SUV, into a parking lot near Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club around 9:15 p.m. Thursday and asked to speak to the president-elect. A Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office detective and a U.S. Secret Service agent pulled the man aside while he waited for police, the report said.

    When the Palm Beach police officer who arrived at the scene checked the man’s driver’s license, he found it had been suspended indefinitely, the report said. When checking the registration number on the SUV the man was driving, the police officer found that it did not belong to him.

    Instead, the gray Hyundai belonged to a rental company that said a woman rented the SUV, the report said. When police contacted that woman, she told them she was an acquaintance of the man from Sarasota and that they had met earlier in the day to buy a vehicle. While the woman went into a bank to get money, the man stayed in the car, she told police.

    When he returned, the SUV was gone, according to the police report.

    The woman returned to the man’s residence, thinking he would return, but he did not. Instead, he apparently drove to Mar-a-Lago. The woman told police she did not give the man permission to take her SUV, the report said.

    A Sarasota County Sheriff’s Office deputy contacted the Palm Beach police officer and said the SUV had been reported stolen.

    Recent arrests at Mar-a-Lago

    Sarasota man is latest arrest at Mar-a-Lago in a a gunman tried to assassinate Trump at the then-Republican presidential candidate’s campaign rally in Pennsylvania on July 13.

    After that incident — in which Trump and two of his supporters were injured and another rally attendee was killed — the Secret Service immediately increased security around Trump, his family and his campaign and all of his properties, including Mar -a-Lago, the former agency. said the Daily News.

    That increased security has included closing South Ocean Boulevard from the South Boulevard roundabout north of the intersection with South County Road when Trump is home.

    On July 31, a Chinese national living in California was arrested after police said he repeatedly tried to enter Mar-a-Lago to speak with Trump. The man was being held at the Palm Beach County Jail until late October, according to police reports. He almost immediately began trying to get to Mar-a-Lago again and was placed in a Baker Act hold on Oct. 30 after asking a Palm Beach resident to help him get to his club Trump, Palm Beach police said.

    On November 7, the same day the man was released from Baker Act detention, was arrested on a charge of criminal trespass after taking an Uber to Mar-a-Lago’s south gate, police said. He pleaded not guilty.

    A South Carolina man who police said was a Trump supporter was arrested Aug. 13 after Palm Beach police said he walked through Secret Service checkpoints to try to talk to Trump. That man also pleaded not guilty.

    Kristina Webb is a reporter for the Palm Beach Daily News, part of the USA TODAY Florida Network. You can reach her at [email protected]. Subscribe today to support our journalism.

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