Police in Florida said a man arrested for stealing a forklift was arrested for a near-identical crime in April 2016. Photo by terimakasih0/Pixabay.com

July 3 (UPI) -- Police in Florida said a man caught driving a stolen forklift told officers he was tired of walking -- and it wasn't the first time.

Port Orange Police said an officer approached Bradley Barefoot, 43, who was appropriately barefoot at the time, after spotting him with the stolen forklift.


"There was a male parked in a handicap spot with a piece of heavy equipment that had a mattress on it. The male was barefoot, talking to himself while swearing and throwing his hands up," WKMG-TV quoted the Port Orange Police report as saying.

Barefoot initially told the officer he took the forklift because he thought it was the same one that has been stolen from his boss in Alabama, but he later said he took the $38,000 vehicle because he was tired of walking and he noticed the keys had been left in the ignition.

Barefoot was arrested on a charge of grand theft.

Police said the incident wasn't Barefoot's first offense -- he was arrested in April 2016 when he took a forklift from behind a Best Buy store in Daytona Beach and used it to move some boxes before driving the piece of equipment to a Bob Evans restaurant.

Investigators said Barefoot told them in the 2016 case that he took the forklift because he didn't feel like walking.