DROP 'EM, PART 1: On Oct. 5 at 1:45 a.m., a Tampa man was sitting on his E. Giddings Avenue driveway, listening to music, when two heavy-set dudes approached. The big men had their faces covered and each was carrying two semi-automatic weapons, one in each hand. Per the report, "[The men] demanded money from the victim and also demanded that he take his shorts off." The victim did as he was told and handed over his shorts. The crooks then asked the man who else was in his house before fleeing "in an unknown direction by unknown means." The victim was not injured.
DROP 'EM, PART 2: A few minutes before the last victim lost his shorts, at 1:30 a.m., a man walked into Tampa police headquarters and reported he had been robbed in Williams Park. The man stated he was parked near 43rd Street and Osborne. He exited his vehicle, walked around it and reached into the passenger side to grab something when the suspects approached from behind. One of the suspects put a gun to the victim's back and "ordered the victim to remove his pants, watch and wallet and hand them over." The man did so, and the thieves fled in an unknown direction. The victim then proceeded to the police station, presumably still de-pants'd (though the report is not specific), to report the crime.
JUST KIDDING: Two young men were walking on 12th Street and E. Linebaugh Avenue (which is "very dark") when a group of seven or eight men approached them and demanded their property. One of the victims reported he saw one of the assailants armed with a gun, and the two men turned over a cell phone and a bicycle and then walked away. Per the report: "One of the suspects quickly re-approached them and returned the property." An anonymous witness, who said he didn't wish to get involved, told the victims that the same thing had happened to him in the past. The witness said that the mock mugging is "a way that [the] suspects 'test' victims." I guess these guys passed.
REPEAT OFFENDER: Here's a woman who clearly didn't learn her lesson in the slammer. The suspect in this case, after having just been released from jail "in reference to a previous domestic violence incident," immediately located the man she had been abusing and started a fight. Per the report: "During the argument, the defendant apparently stabbed the victim with an unknown object (possibly car keys or scissors) in the upper chest." The man suffered a collapsed lung and was treated and released from Tampa General. The woman went back to jail for some more quality alone time.
From the files of the T.P.D. To comment on this story, click on the link below.
