Print

Email story

Comment

Email editor

Body found as kettle case unfolds

Police say a body found in a creek resembles the man suspected of stealing Salvation Army kettles.

By CRAIG PITTMAN
Published December 6, 2005

ST. PETERSBURG - Police are looking for a former auto-repair shop owner suspected of robbing several Salvation Army bellringers in Pinellas County.

The search might have ended Monday at the bottom of a creek near the Hillsborough River in Tampa.

Police pulled a body out of a submerged car Monday afternoon that roughly matches the description of Lee J. George, 41. Police in St. Petersburg and Pinellas Park have named George a suspect in the robberies.

The car, a green Buick Century, also matches the description of the car in the robberies authorities said.

George, who has listed myriad addresses in Pasco and Pinellas counties since the 1990s, has a drug problem and a criminal record for car theft, burglary and other offenses going back 20 years, according to police and court records.

A Tampa wastewater worker spotted the vehicle in a creek in the 2100 block of Riverside Drive just north of downtown Tampa at about 1:15 p.m., said Tampa police spokesman Joe Durkin. Police divers found the body, without identification, fully clothed in the back seat.

Said St. Petersburg police spokesman Bill Doniel: "It very well could be our suspect in the kettle robberies."

"The only thing we're telling people," added Durkin, "is that Tampa, Pinellas Park and St. Pete police are comparing our notes."

All agencies are awaiting positive identification from the Hillsborough medical examiner's office that could come today. The Buick was stolen from a Clearwater restaurant on Thanksgiving, Durkin said.

Police divers also found a bottle of liquor and two pill bottles near the car, Durkin said. Small amounts of marijuana were inside the bottles, Durkin said.

Detectives in Pinellas said they believe the spree of Salvation Army robberies was fueled by the suspect's drug habit. He made his first attempts at swiping the kettles Nov. 28 and his most recent on Saturday.

"The information we've got is he's using crack quite heavily," said St. Petersburg police Detective James Shakas. "That's why he's doing what he's doing."

When detectives showed George's photo to some of the bellringers who have been robbed, Shakas said, they agreed the police were on the right trail.

George is former owner of Leevettes, a Corvette shop on Sunset Point Road in Clearwater, according to Pinellas Park police Detective Joe Doswell. The two departments are working together on the case because the thefts have occurred in both cities.

George is a transient with no permanent address, police say. The suspect was driving a dark green four-door Buick Century, but Shakas said the driver appears to be swiping license plates from other cars and using them when he robs the bellringers.

Detectives said they focused on George after receiving an anonymous tip they would not describe. Shakas said officers suspect him in a Nov. 29 purse-snatching at Fourth Street Cigars and Martini Bar in St. Petersburg, and two other petty thefts in St. Petersburg. He is now a suspect in the thefts of two kettles on Nov. 28, one on Nov. 30 and one more Saturday. The thief also tried making off with another kettle on Nov. 28 but the bellringer, Carliemar White, 69, chased him down and snatched back the kettle, which he estimated contained about $300.

"I didn't want to lose that kettle," White said. "He was going to have to take me in that car to get it."

The dimes, quarters and dollar bills stuffed into the kettles outside Publix, Wal-Mart, Winn-Dixie and other stores, help buy food and Christmas gifts for about 700 south Pinellas families, including about 1,600 children, Salvation Army officials say.

Kettle thefts are not unusual. A bellringer was robbed at knifepoint last year. The 19-year-old thief was sentenced to more than three years in prison.

But five attempts in five days by the same 6-foot-tall, 250-pound robber is enough to alarm the cadre of volunteer and paid bellringers who turn out every Christmas season to collect money for the Salvation Army.

"The first lady who was robbed has not been back," said Maj. Gary Elliott, area commander. He described a meeting of the bellringers Monday morning as "a pretty anxious group," with one woman openly weeping as she described her fears.

The thief has targeted the more vulnerable bellringers. His first two thefts were from a blind bellringer and one who is in a wheelchair.

The Salvation Army pays elderly and handicapped people to man its kettles, Elliott said, because "that's who we want to help," he said, adding, "They enlist the public's support and sympathy. We're not going to put a bunch of husky men out there."

Doniel, of the St. Petersburg police, said the case has generated national publicity - which has actually boosted Salvation Army collections this year.

"We're thankful for that," Elliott said, "although we'd rather not have publicity this way."

--Times staff writers Sherri Day and Rebecca Catalanello and researcher Caryn Baird contributed to this story.

[Last modified December 6, 2005, 02:15:34]