Florida cops were looking for an armed robber. One clue: A mask from a horror movie
A suspect in two recent armed robberies in Central Florida has been caught thanks to good, old-fashioned police work, according to the Volusia County Sheriff’s Office.
The agency said in a news release that a 21-year-old was arrested Thursday night after detectives served a search warrant at his home in Deltona, about a half hour north of Orlando and less than a half-mile from the scene of both incidents.
According to a sheriff’s office Facebook post, the first case was reported around 10:30 p.m. Aug. 18 outside a Pizza Hut, in which an employee sitting in her vehicle was approached by a robber who demanded money at gunpoint. The robber was described as wearing a black hoodie with his face covered by a black shirt or bandanna.
The second case was reported around 3:30 a.m. Aug. 20 at a Circle K station nearby, where the clerk reported he was robbed at a gunpoint by a man wearing a so called Scream mask, part of the killers’ costume in the hit horror movie franchise.
When detectives followed a suspect as he went to his job at McDonald’s, they noticed he was wearing the same style blue latex gloves he wore in surveillance video of the Circle K robbery. They were also similar to gloves found near the crime scene, police say.
On Thursday morning, with his trash out on the curb for scheduled pickup, detectives pulled four garbage bags to search for evidence. Among the items they found were a “Scream” black and white ghost face mask, a women’s wallet containing the Pizza Hut victim’s ID cards and the blue latex gloves.
After obtaining a search warrant for the home, detectives also found a backpack containing a Heckler & Koch .22 caliber rifle, ammunition and more gloves in his bedroom.
Although he initially denied any knowledge of the crimes, the suspect later confirmed that “he committed them alone,” says the sheriff’s office.
He was arrested and taken to the Volusia County Branch Jail on two counts of armed robbery and remains in custody on $60,000 bond.
