WESLEY CHAPEL - Pasco sheriff's deputies are looking for the man accused of robbing Remington's Steakhouse at gunpoint Sunday night.
The robbery occurred at 11 p.m., according to a sheriff's report, when a man in a ski mask approached a dishwasher who was taking out the trash behind the restaurant. The armed man threatened the dishwasher and demanded to see his boss.
Once inside, the man went into the office and confronted the manager, demanding and receiving cash. Once the robber took the cash, the manager told deputies, he cocked his weapon.
The robber ripped a necklace off a witness and ran out the back, the report said. When deputies arrived, dogs could not pick up the robber's scent, the report said, and the search ended.
The robber is described as a young man with a dark-brown complexion, medium build, 5-foot-8 and about 180 pounds. He was wearing a black ski mask and a gray jumpsuit. The amount stolen was not disclosed in the report.
Anyone with information about the robbery is asked to contact the Sheriff's Crimes Tipline toll-free at 1-800-706-2488.
Pickup truck fails to slow, causes 8-vehicle pileup
WESLEY CHAPEL - One vehicle caused a dominolike eight-vehicle pileup on Interstate 75 early Monday morning that left no one injured but did delay traffic.
According to the Florida Highway Patrol, the seven other vehicles involved in the accident slowed down as southbound traffic on I-75 slowed south of State Road 54. Two vehicles had to pull into the median to avoid colliding with the vehicles ahead, the report said.
But 20-year-old Bryan Short of San Antonio did not slow or stop for traffic, the FHP said, resulting in the 6:26 a.m. pileup. Short clipped the right sides of the two vehicles that had pulled into the median with the left side of his 1993 Ford F-150 pickup, the report said, and then his truck collided into the rear of another vehicle, causing it to hit the vehicle in front of it, and so on until eight vehicles were damaged.
Short of 12902 Magnolia St. was cited with careless driving. The total damage estimate for all eight vehicles: $13,250. The interstate was not shut down during the investigation, the FHP said.
Men conspired to steal from trucker, deputies say
SAN ANTONIO - Two men trying to lure a Texas trucker into a card game behind the Flying J truck stop on State Road 52 on Sunday morning apparently conspired to steal money from him, according to a sheriff's report.
According to the report, about 9 a.m. one of the men knocked on the semitrailer truck of the victim, William Bagi, 49, of Texas, to get him to join a card game. They went to see a second man playing three-card monte, and the first man appeared to win money from him.
Then they persuaded the trucker to take money out of his wallet to play. The trucker held an undisclosed amount of cash in his hand, the report said, but decided not to play because of "suspicious circumstances."
Then the man who ran the card game grabbed the trucker's money and ran, the report said.
