Imagine waking up to this nightmare

Barry Wilbanks

FRUITLAND PARK, FLA. – Imagine being awakened by the sound of someone breaking into your home in the early morning hours. Then imagine learning that the burglar had 16 convictions and had just been released from prison.

A couple on Aug. 12, 2024, didn’t have to imagine it. The same for a neighbor across the street, whose surveillance video showed the man trying to climb his roof.

Lake County jurors this week found Barry E. Wilbanks, 38, guilty of burglary of a dwelling. Because he was classified as a prison reoffender (three days after being released) Circuit Judge Brian Walke sentenced him to 15 years in prison.

Wilbanks doesn’t have a history of violence. In fact, a lot of it is criminal traffic offenses like fleeing and eluding police, DUI, and dealing in stolen property,

But breaking and entering an occupied home takes it to a whole new, potentially dangerous level.

According to court records, the couple was asleep around 4:30 a.m. when the wife heard the garage door open. The husband went into the laundry room where the intruder rummaging through his wife’s purse.

“They’re chasing me!” the burglar said.

He then jumped into the couple’s car. The husband yelled for him to get out of his house. That’s when he ran across the street, practically into the arms of a police officer responding to the call off Privett Drive.

Police soon got a second call about a potential attempted burglary on Trussler Terrace. That’s when the police spotted Wilbanks running across the street.