Jerry Bush told Pasco County detectives he forgot he left about $170,000 in cash in a tool bag inside his F-150 pickup.
Evidently, he remembered at some point, but it was a little too late. The money was gone.
Bush, 46, told detectives the money and two handguns vanished when someone broke into his truck sometime overnight Oct. 30.
On Tuesday, Pasco detectives arrested 30-year-old Lester Scott Blain in connection with the theft.
Blain, of 726 Westbrook Ave., according to sheriff's office spokesman Kevin Doll, didn't know about the loot when he broke into Bush's crew-cab truck. But once he discovered it, he called a cab to pick him up near Bush's home at 37913 Lake Gilbert Circle. That cab driver later helped identify him as the thief, a sheriff's office report states.
At some point, Blain paid $33,244.78 in cash for a2005 Chevy Tahoe Z-71 and a 2003 Ford Explorer at "The Car Store" in Seffner.
Blain bragged about the theft to relatives, said Doll, and even gave his aunt one of the guns.
He turned himself in to authorities Wednesday to face the charges but, according to his arrest affidavit, he said that Bush gave him the money and told him he would claim the loss on his insurance.
He denied stealing the firearms.
None of the money has been recovered, Doll said. A .38-caliber revolver has been recovered but not the .22 Magnum. The Ford Explorer has been recovered but not the Chevy Tahoe.
Bush told a detective he got the money from selling a plant nursery business. He couldn't be reached for comment Wednesday.
Blain is being held at the Land O' Lakes Jail on charges of burglary, grand theft over $100,000, and grand theft of a firearm.
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