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Decorative rocks become focus of armed clash

Ten boulders at a strip mall had disappeared. The owner didn't want it to happen again, so he kept watch over them with a gun, deputies said.

By JONATHAN ABEL
Published April 28, 2006

SPRING HILL - In the last two weeks, 10 boulders had been stolen from the parking lot of Bill C. Smith's strip mall on Spring Hill Drive.

Wednesday night, he decided to sit across the street in his car, armed with a .38-caliber revolver, and wait.

His shopping center, Briarwood Village at 10545 Spring Hill Drive, is home to Jerry's Place bar and the Ultimate Tanning Salon. The rocks cost 6 cents per pound and ranged from 80 to 800 pounds.

About 10:45, Smith saw a pickup pull into the parking lot. He would later tell the Hernando County Sheriff's Office that two men - Richard E. Gray II, 25, and Steven M. Labate, 30, - got out and tried to carry a boulder toward the truck while a woman, Tanya M. Brunick, 28, stood lookout in the parking lot.

Smith drove into the lot and told the three not to move because he had called authorities. According to the sheriff's report, Smith said he felt threatened when one of the men started to come toward him, so he took his gun out of its holster and held it by his side.

But Gray told deputies that he was not trying to steal the boulder. He and Labate were lifting the rock to find out who was stronger. Labate said they were just horsing around to see if they could lift the boulder over their heads.

Gray and Labate told the Sheriff's Office that Smith was waving the gun at them and threatened to shoot them.

Sheriff's spokeswoman Deputy Donna L. Black said there was an "open investigation into the alleged improper exhibition of a firearm."

Gray, of Spring Hill, and Labate, of Port Richey, were charged with petty theft. Brunick, of Spring Hill, was charged as a principal to petty theft. They were taken to the Hernando County Jail and released.

Jonathan Abel can be reached at jabel@sptimes.com or 352 754-6114.

[Last modified April 28, 2006, 01:16:18]