A suspect has been arrested in two recent armed robberies in central Florida thanks to good old-fashioned police work, according to the Volusia County Sheriff’s Office.
The 21-year-old was arrested Thursday night after investigators issued a search warrant at his home in Deltona, about a half hour north of Orlando and less than half a mile from the scene of the two accidents, the agency said in a news release. .
According to a post by the sheriff’s office on Facebook, the first case was reported around 10:30 p.m. on August 18 outside a Pizza Hut restaurant, where a burglar approached an employee who was sitting in her car and demanded money at gunpoint. He described the thief as wearing a black jacket with his face covered by a black shirt or handkerchief.
The second case was reported around 3:30 a.m. on August 20 at a nearby Circle K station, with an employee reporting he was mugged at gunpoint by a man wearing a so-called Scream Mask, part of the killers’ costume in the hit horror movie. movie franchise.
When detectives tracked the suspect to his job at McDonald’s, they noticed he was wearing the same blue gloves he wore in the surveillance video of the Circle K robbery. Police say they were also similar to gloves found near the crime scene.
On Thursday morning, when the trash was on the sidewalk for a scheduled pickup, investigators pulled out four trash bags to search for evidence. Among the items they found were a black-and-white “Scream” ghost face mask, a woman’s purse containing the Pizza Hut victim’s ID cards, and blue rubber gloves.
After obtaining a search warrant for the home, investigators also found a backpack containing a Heckler & Koch .22 caliber rifle, ammunition and other gloves in his bedroom.
Although he initially denied any knowledge of the crimes, the suspect later asserted that he “did it alone,” the sheriff’s office says.
He was arrested and transferred to the Volusia County Branch Jail on two counts of armed robbery and remains in custody on $60,000 bail.
