Police: Trump supporter arrested after he tried to get into Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach

Before he traveled from his home in South Carolina to the sun-kissed shores of Palm Beach, Patrick Webster Warren researched his destination: former President Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago Club.

There, Warren later told police, he wanted to get Trump's autograph on a T-shirt and give the Republican nominee for president some religious items.

Instead, the 42-year-old Warren's persistence in bypassing U.S. Secret Service checkpoints erected about three weeks ago around Mar-a-Lago led him to being arrested Tuesday and charged with misdemeanor trespassing and loitering and prowling, police said in an arrest report. He pleaded not guilty to both charges during his first appearance before a Palm Beach County judge on Wednesday morning, according to court records.

Trump was at his Palm Beach home Tuesday. He arrived in Palm Beach on Sunday for a few days before leaving Wednesday for a campaign rally in Asheville, North Carolina. According to Federal Aviation Administration advisories, Trump will leave North Carolina and head to his club in Bedminster, New Jersey.

The Secret Service first encountered Warren about noon Tuesday at 1094 S. Ocean Blvd., the property that borders Mar-a-Lago to the north and is also owned by an entity controlled by Trump's eldest sons. That estate is inside the protected security zone put in place by the Secret Service on July 20 following the July 13 attempted assassination on Trump during a campaign rally in Pennsylvania.

More: Palm Beach to review legal options, including closing club, over Mar-a-Lago road shutdown

The security zone around Mar-a-Lago includes orange traffic cones and concrete barricades to prevent all except emergency vehicles from entering from the south, officials have said.

All residents of and visitors to the area within the zone, which extends along South Ocean Boulevard from the Southern Boulevard traffic circle north to the intersection with South County Road, must enter and exit through the northern checkpoint, and they must show proper identification before entering.

Warren's arrest comes about two weeks after a Chinese citizen, Zijie Li, was arrested and charged with misdemeanor trespassing for repeatedly trying to drive around the checkpoints to get to Mar-a-Lago, saying he had documents that tied his home country to the attempted assassination. Li remains at the Palm Beach County Jail on a $10,000 bond, and he has pleaded not guilty.

When the Secret Service told Warren he was trespassing, he told them that he was there to meet with the former president. Warren did not have permission to enter the property or the protected zone, the Secret Service told police.

Warren had traveled from his home in Murrells Inlet, South Carolina, just south of the famed tourist destination of Myrtle Beach, to meet with Trump, he told police. He took an Uber to Palm Beach, where he was dropped off in the Bath & Tennis Club's parking lot, which neighbors Mar-a-Lago to the south, according to the arrest report.

Now just 100 feet from Trump's property, Warren walked along the east side of South Ocean Boulevard, along the edge of the Bath & Tennis Club and its service driveway, following a path he charted while looking at aerial images of Mar-a-Lago before leaving his home, the arrest report said.

When a large truck created an opening, Warren took his opportunity to pass the checkpoint without being screened or checked in, he told police. Warren also told police that he had been to Trump campaign events in the past, and that he had been screened and checked in for those.

As Warren walked north on South Ocean Boulevard, he looked for a way to enter Mar-a-Lago, passing the closed main gate, where he was captured on surveillance cameras looking through the gate's white wood spindles that are attached to an archway covered with imported Spanish tiles. He told police that after he passed that gate and Mar-a-Lago's northern driveway, he continued walking.

The property just north of Mar-a-Lago on South Ocean Boulevard is owned by DT Venture 1 LLC, an entity listed in state documents as being controlled by two of Trump's three sons: Donald Trump Jr., its executive vice president, treasurer, secretary and vice president; and Eric Trump, its president.

Warren entered that driveway thinking it was part of Mar-a-Lago, and it was there that he was stopped by the Secret Service, the arrest report said.

Warren remained at the Palm Beach County Jail on Wednesday morning on a $3,000 bond, court records show. A judge ordered Warren to have no contact with Trump, Trump's family or Mar-a-Lago security and personnel. He also cannot go on the Southern Boulevard Bridge or South Ocean Boulevard around Mar-a-Lago, court records show.

Kristina Webb is a reporter for Palm Beach Daily News, part of the USA TODAY Florida Network. You can reach her at kwebb@pbdailynews.com. Subscribe today to support our journalism.

This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Daily News: Police: Trump supporter charged with trespassing at Mar-a-Lago