PUNTA GORDA — Charlotte County Sheriff’s deputies located and arrested an 18-year-old at 1:45 a.m. Friday who was wanted for stealing three boxes of cough syrup Monday night from the Punta Gorda Walmart. Arrested for petit theft was Aaron Matthew Watts, of the 21000 block of Meehan Avenue, Port Charlotte. This is his 28th booking into the Charlotte County Jail, where he remains on no bond due to his excessive number of arrests, mostly as a juvenile. Deputies were called to the Walmart Monday after security followed a young man who was acting suspiciously in the pharmacy section. Security witnessed the man put three boxes of cough syrup in his pants and walk out the front door. Security followed and confronted the teen, who then took off running across the parking lot.

Security told deputies he saw the fleeing man drop his wallet, his baseball cap and flip-flops, which he recovered and gave to deputies. Upon checking the wallet, the driver’s license photo positively matched the suspect whom security was chasing. Deputies were unable to locate Watts until this morning, when they saw him riding a bicycle on Acline Road near Taylor Road south of Punta Gorda.