Police say a gunman chose an unusual way to rob a Pembroke Pines bank last Tuesday — he used his smartphone to type a stick-up note.
But long distance wasn’t part of his phone plan. Police descended on the suspect — who allegedly had pulled another holdup just minutes earlier — as he walked out the door, confiscating his phone.
Authorities said the man, whose name was not released, was suspected in at least two other recent South Florida bank robberies, plus holdups in Texas and Georgia. The suspect used the smartphone method at least once before, police said.
Around 9:15 a.m. on Tuesday, police say, the suspect hit the Wells Fargo bank at 12440 Pines Blvd. Police were attending a 9/11 ceremony nearby when the call went out. The second robbery occurred moments later at Chase bank, 11100 Pembroke Road. This time, a takedown team was there to disconnect the suspect’s service.
Police can only speculate why the suspect, who wore a bulletproof vest, used a note at the first robbery and a phone at the second.
Borrowed food breaking point
Curtis Leatherberry told deputies he grabbed a soda and a pastry from the house next door. It was an agreement he had with his neighbour. He didn’t think there would be any trouble. At 1:45 Tuesday morning, his neighbour came over.
Tony Barney struck up an argument, deputies say. He said food had been missing from his house and blamed Leatherberry, 52, a Pasco County Sheriff’s Office report states.
Barney, 31, punched out a window of Leatherberry’s live-in camper, deputies said. Leatherberry told Barney that if he put his hand in again, he would stab it. Authorities say Barney punched out every other window. He lobbed a cinder block into the trailer, breaking Leatherberry’s dresser and microwave, the report states.
Barney broke off the supports to the camper’s out-board sleeping area, then, the report states, he began “literally tearing the walls off the trailer.” The report says he stuck a water hose in the camper, turned it on and left.
Deputies wrote they arrived to find shards of glass around the trailer and clinging to its window frames. A 32-inch TV lay on its face nearby. The camper’s siding was torn off, the frame broken, the inside soaked. In the middle of the floor sat the cinder block.
Asked why he did it, the report states, Barney told deputies, “While I was talking with Curtis, it looked like he was going to get froggy. That is the only way I can describe it.” Barney was arrested on a charge of criminal mischief. He remained Wednesday at Land O’Lakes jail in lieu of $5,000 bail.
Post published in: World News