A stolen car was spotted by a license plate reader mounted on a roving police cruiser but right after the driver was just cited and released for theft at Walmart Friday afternoon.

Ronnie James, 54, had just been cited for a theft at the store and released when a second officer made a pass up Mitchell Road. In the area of Fowler Road, the officer's equipment alerted him to the scan of a license plate belonging to a stolen vehicle. At 3:49 p.m. the officer flipped around and found the car and driver and pulled it over in the Rite Aid parking lot.

James was arrested and booked for auto theft.