The Lee County Sheriff’s Office today said that a Palm Beach County man who thought it was a good idea to purposely dump tons of debris in Lehigh Acres is probably weighing whether that was a smart decision.

The man has been charged with dumping debris, a felony. Investigators said that on February 7, they received a complaint from a Lehigh Acres resident who noticed a blue Freightliner dump truck driving down Hamilton Avenue near his home. He found this to be unusual and suspicious because there was no construction in his area, he told investigators. The resident followed in his car and witnessed the dump truck parked on a wooded lot midway down a short block. A short time later, the dump truck pulled out of the woods and the resident saw a large pile of debris that had not been there minutes before. The resident followed the truck and wrote down the truck’s tag number, investigators said.

Deputies arrived to find a large pile of debris in the trees, measuring about 35 feet long by 13 feet wide and standing between 3 and 5 feet in height. In the debris were boxes with addresses and phone numbers from Palm Beach County, investigators said.

A Lee County deputy traced the vehicle to a person named Barbaro Montesdeoca living in Palm Beach County. The deputy was assisted by the Palm Beach Sheriff’s Office, which sent a deputy to the suspect’s address. The Palm Beach deputy instructed Montesdeoca to call the Lee County deputy, which he did.

While on the phone, Montesdeoca made a spontaneous utterance that he had brought a load of debris from his home in Palm Beach County to Lehigh Acres, where he dumped it, investigators said. Montesdeoca said he would return and clean up the debris. No consideration or deal was made between the deputy or Montesdeoca, investigators said.

When Montesdeoca returned to the scene, he was arrested and charged with Felony Dumping in Excess of 500 pounds. The truck was also seized for forfeiture.

Arrested was Barbaro Montesdeoca, 33, of 4403 Anna Lane, West Palm Beach, Fla.