Zephyrhills police officers have arrested forklift operator Michael Gordon Fernandes, 26, and charged him with grand theft for stealing bottled water with an estimated value of USD50,000.

Police say Fernandes and an unidentified individual conspired to steal five semitractor truckloads of bottled Zephyrhills-brand natural spring water over six weeks from a Zephyrhills warehouse of Nestlé Waters North America Inc of Greenwich, Connecticut. Parent firm Nestlé SA is based in Vevey, Switzerland.

Using a company-owned forklift, Fernandes loaded the pallets onto a truck for USD500 per truckload, and the co-conspirator would drive the loot away.

On 6 September, Fernandes was arrested and later released from the Pasco County jail after posting bail of USD10,000. Police seek to question the other person.

The office of a state's attorney will review the charge and present it to a judge in the Florida circuit for Pasco and Pinellas counties, says Capt Robert McKinney of the Zephyrhills police department.