A New Year's Eve robbery leaves one good Samaritan looking for safer ways to help.
By TERRI D. REEVES
Published January 12, 2004
Merlene Timlick thought she was going to die.
Minutes earlier, she had pulled over on the Courtney Campbell Parkway to help two young women who appeared to be in distress.
But when Timlick, known to friends as Susie, offered help, she was beaten, kicked, robbed, cursed and left on the side of the road.
The robbery has left Timlick, 56, wary of ever again stopping to be a good Samaritan.
"From now on, I will use my cell phone to call emergency services," she said.
The robbery took place New Year's Eve. Timlick was on her way home to Clearwater after a few games of bingo with friends at the Seminole Gaming Palace in Tampa. She was wearing shorts and a short-sleeved shirt and wanted to get home before it got too chilly.
When she reached the Rocky Point basin on the Tampa side of the causeway, she saw two young women sitting on the trunk of their older Toyota Corolla signaling for help.
Timlick thought she saw a baby car seat in the back. As a mother of four and grandmother of 13, she knew she would want the same help for her own children.
Timlick has always cared about others. She is the operations manager at the Priests of the Sacred Heart in Pinellas Park, where she tends to the well-being of retired priests, bishops and brothers.
This Christmas she bought toys, clothes and gifts for 40 foster children.
She also appreciates life and knows how fragile it is. She was diagnosed with thyroid cancer in 1994. She recently learned her cancer was in remission, but that good news was tempered when the doctor informed her she was diabetic. She was in a serious car accident four years ago, which left her with nerve damage to the lower spine.
As she pulled over to the side of the road, Timlick noticed the car, painted a dull primer red, had no license plate; a paper tag hung in the rear window.
Clutching her cell phone, Timlick slid out the passenger side of her silver Plymouth Voyager minivan to avoid the traffic whizzing along the causeway.
"Honey, can I help you? I have a cell phone," she offered the young woman approaching her.
"Ain't nothin' you can do for me," the woman replied, cursing Timlick. The remark was followed by a punch in the face and a kick in the stomach.
"My eyeglasses went into my cheek and when she kicked me, I went down and hit my head on the guardrail," Timlick said. As she lay on the side of the road in the rocks and grass, her attacker entered her van and emptied the contents of her purse on the ground.
"Yahee! We scored!" she yelled to her accomplice, cursing again.
The woman stole $976 from a bank envelope, a credit card, a bank card, and checkbook. She also took a gold, rope-chain necklace with two gold charms " "#1 Nana' and "#1 Mom' " - given to Timlick by her daughters.
"It was worth over $600, but the sentimental value was worth much more than that," she said.
The two robbers gave each other high-fives, hurried back to their car and sped off, leaving Timlick lying on the side of the road, hidden from view; her fog and emergency lights flashing in the cool night air.
In the dim light, she spotted her cell phone a few feet away. She scooted through the rocks and grass, grabbed it and called 911.
Dazed, she had a hard time describing her location to the operator. At one point, she lost the connection. The operators could not seem to figure out if they needed to call the Clearwater Police, the Hillsborough Sheriff's office or the Tampa Police Department.
She is unsure how long it took for police to arrive. She refused medical treatment for the large swollen lump on her head because she did not want to spend New Year's Eve in the emergency room. She called friends who helped her get home.
Timlick describes the pair as two Hispanic women who are in their late teens or early 20s. The attacker had a light, creamy complexion, with long, thick, wavy hair pulled back by a scrunchy, and was about 5-foot-3, weighing approximately 140 pounds. She wore ankle-length military boots, a red and white striped T-shirt and long black stretch denim jeans. She wore 8 to 10 earrings in each ear.
The accomplice was about 5-foot-4 or 5-foot-5 and about 180 pounds. Timlick noted that she was "hefty in the hips." She had an olive complexion and her dark hair was woven into beaded cornrows. She wore a black T-shirt with the word b---- on it and frayed denim mini-shorts.
The Tampa Police Department has not been able to locate the suspects. Anyone with any information about this case should call the Tampa Police Department at (813) 231-6130 or Crime Stoppers at 1-800-873-8477.
