OKEECHOBEE — A 76-year-old homeless woman was arrested Friday, Aug. 26 for allegedly sleeping in her car at the Clif Betts Jr. Lakeside Recreation Area (aka Lock 7 or Jaycee Park). According to the arrest report, she told the officer she could not drive at night and to go ahead and arrest her, adding that she will just sit in jail for 30 days and get fed and taken care of. 

The report states a complaint came in about people camping at the recreation area and sleeping in their vehicles. Deputy Javier Gonzalez was dispatched to investigate and found two women parked and sleeping in the back seats of their vehicles. Both women were told they could not sleep in that area. The women argued with the deputy telling him they had nowhere to go and kept getting trespassed everywhere they tried to sleep. One of the women left but the second, the 76-year-old, laid back down and went to sleep. The deputy confronted her again telling her she would be arrested if she did not leave. This was when she reportedly told him to just go ahead and take her to jail. She was charged with trespass after warning.

The same woman was arrested last summer when the motel where she was staying told her she had to leave because they had rented the room she was in to someone else. She reportedly refused to leave telling deputies, “I’m not going.” She was sentenced to one month in county jail on charges of trespass and resisting arrest.