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CHRIS TISCHThe suspect, who is alleged to have robbed eight banks, has been identified from bank surveillance cameras.
Detectives say Roger R. Serio is on a crack cocaine binge and is robbing banks to fund it.
Police suspect that he has held up eight banks in the last month, most recently Wednesday morning at the Gulfport AmSouth, 5728 Gulfport Blvd. Investigators suspect him of robbing banks in Largo, Palm Harbor, New Port Richey, Lakeland and Sarasota.
Detectives say Serio, 32, has made no effort to disguise himself during the holdups. Surveillance cameras have shot clear photos of him. Witnesses also have jotted down the license plate number of the car he is driving, which is registered to his mother.
"We're doing all the stuff that cops do to find him," said Cpl. Paul Martin of the Pinellas sheriff's office's robbery unit. "What makes him difficult is he's mobile and he's doing the crack thing. He's smoking crack and staying in crack houses and crack holes."
Martin knows Serio because he arrested him in 1995 for robbing a consignment shop on McMullen-Booth Road. Serio pleaded guilty to the charge and was sentenced to two years of house arrest and one year of probation.
He met the conditions of that probation and was released from it in 1998.
"The last time he was arrested in 1995 it was because of crack," Martin said. "People who know him say he's relapsed."
The series of robberies began Oct. 21 with the holdup of the South Belcher Road SouthTrust Bank in Largo. The same man robbed a Roosevelt Boulevard SunTrust Bank six days later, then returned and held up that bank again Nov. 6. In between, he hit the bank in Lakeland.
The same man held up a Sarasota bank on Nov. 12, the Wachovia Bank at State Road 54 and Madison in Pasco County on Nov. 18, and the Republic Bank on U.S. 19 in Palm Harbor on Friday.
Four of his robberies have been in the morning, four in the afternoon.
In each, he passed a note to a teller demanding cash. No tellers have ever seen him show a gun, but he implies during each holdup that he has one. He has reached for his waistband and threatened to kill tellers, Martin said.
Serio came close to getting caught Wednesday. He robbed the Gulfport bank just minutes after police detectives left the bank after using the ATM. Police think Serio watched the detectives leave before robbing the bank.
Investigators say Serio is driving a car registered to his mother, a metallic blue, four-door Saturn Ion. The car's license plate number is W48-UGI.
Detectives said Serio hasn't been to his mother's New Port Richey address in at least two months.
Serio is 5-foot-8 and about 170 pounds. He has blue eyes and brown hair that is short and straight.
Anyone with information about his whereabouts can call Gulfport police Detective Robert Burkhart at (727) 893-1654, Cpl. Martin at (727) 582-6200 or Crime Stoppers at 1-800-873-8477.