A 32 year-old man, described by Villages-News.com as a “squatter” who lives illegally in a trailer on private property just outside the massive corporate retirement community, was arrested by Sumter County Sheriff’s Deputies on suspicion of running a golf cart “chop shop” operation – as in stealing, dismantling, and parting out the vehicles. And man were those suspicions ultimately founded.
The deputies recognized Joshua Wayne Harrell while responding to an unrelated call within view of the trailer – and the surrounding clutch of fancy-looking golf carts, engine parts, and other miscellany strewn about the area. Harrell is currently being held at the Sumter County Detention Center on a litany of charges, including operating a chop shop, four counts of burglary, four counts of grand theft, three counts of petit theft, two counts of trespassing, and criminal mischief. The man’s palm print was linked to the theft of a $5,000 motor from a brand-new rental golf cart that was gutted outside of the Villages’ Waterfront Inn in November 2025. Power tools believed stolen from a work truck at the very same location a few months earlier were found at the trailer site.