Police: Florida man with tattooed face found asleep in stolen truck at Walmart

A 25-year-old Florida man is behind bars after police found him asleep Friday morning in a Walmart parking lot behind the wheel of a stolen truck.

Robert Hardister told police he’d borrowed the 1998 black Ford F-150 from a friend to move furniture to his new apartment. He’d paid the friend $20, he said.

He parked in the Walmart parking lot to get some sleep before a construction gig later that day.

Hardister said he didn’t know the truck was stolen, but police still charged him with vehicle theft.

He has pleaded guilty to multiple theft charges and spent time in jail for them in the last few years, court records show.

Hardister is being held in the Palm Beach County jail on a $4,500 bond, according to court records.

Hardister’s distinctive mug shot shows his face nearly covered in tattoos.

If photos from previous bookings in the Palm Beach County Jail are an indication, Hardister appears to have gotten most of the facial ink since Feb. 15, 2013, when he was arrested by Tequesta police for an out of town warrant. In that mugshot, Hardister sports only a tear drop under his right eye and a tattoo on the right side of his neck.

Eleven months later when arrested by Palm Beach County Sheriff’s deputies on a fraud charge, Hardister had added a tattoo to the left side of his neck.

Hardister’s mugshot on Feb. 17, 2013, after an arrest on several charges including burglary shows added artwork including a star under his right eye and lettering on his neck, left cheek and chin.

By the time Hardister was arrested in July for a probation violation, his face was almost entirely tatted up, leaving only a small area on the right side of his face without ink.

Hardister did not show any new markings on his face following his arrest Friday by Jupiter police for alleged vehicle theft. But his hair — brown in previous mugshots — had been bleached blonde.

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