Print

Email story

Comment

Email editor

Woman enters garage and steps into trouble

An intruder tries to grab her keys. When she resists, he punches her in the face. He remained at large Tuesday.

By JACOB H. FRIES
Published January 18, 2006

EAST LAKE - The intruder was waiting for her, authorities said.

At 12:20 p.m. Tuesday, Manisha Patel, 39, stepped into the garage of her home on Juniper Drive in the Lansbrook neighborhood and found a man there, Pinellas County Sheriff's Office spokesman Mac McMullen said. The man demanded money, told her he had a gun and grabbed at her car keys.

She resisted and he punched her in the face, said her husband, Anil Patel. The robber knocked her to the ground.

"She's very brave," her husband said.

A 4-year-old neighbor, playing in the Patel's driveway, saw the struggle and he rushed home to tell his mother, McMullen said. She came to the house, saw the intruder and called authorities.

Moments later, deputies spread through the neighborhood to search for the intruder, who left the Patel home empty-handed, McMullen said. The suspect is described as a white man, 30 years old, 6 feet tall with a medium build. He was last seen wearing a torn black T-shirt, blue jeans and a mesh mask over his face.

The manhunt delayed some neighborhood children getting home from school.

Nell Chapman, principal of Brooker Creek Elementary, learned of the situation when a parent called, and she decided to keep the 350 children who live in Lansbrook at the school. Parents were notified they had to pick up their children.

"The teachers stayed in the classroom until everyone was picked up," Chapman said. "We worked as a team."

Sheriff's investigators think the same man might have been involved in a robbery in November in the East Lake Woodlands subdivision, McMullen said.

In that case, a woman was confronted in her home by an intruder who told her he had a gun, stole jewelry and then forced her to drive to a bank and cash a check.

In both robberies, detectives think the man entered through an open garage door.

Anyone with information is asked to contact Detective Jim Cavagnaro at (727) 582-6200 or Crime Stoppers at 1-800-873-8477.

[Last modified January 18, 2006, 01:11:13]