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Three robberies in 90 minutes

Police are unsure if the incidents outside grocery stores are related.

By THOMAS LAKE
Published December 21, 2006

HOLIDAY - The robber's teeth shone perfect white. Linda McClellan remembers this because even as he pulled the knife, even as he threatened her life, he never stopped smiling.

She left work just after 5 p.m. Tuesday, grabbed a 12-pack from the liquor store and got in her car outside the Kash n' Karry on U.S. 19. A clean-cut young man followed her. Before she could lock the doors, he got in beside her.

"What the hell do you want?" she said.

"Give me all your money," he said, holding a brown-handled knife, "and you won't get your throat cut."

McClellan, 57, opened her door and fell into the parking lot, screaming. The smiling robber walked off.

It was the first of three robberies outside Holiday supermarkets in a 90-minute span. No arrests had been reported by Wednesday, and authorities weren't sure if the crimes were related. The suspect descriptions were not identical.

What could explain this minor spree?

"Criminals are just like everyone else," said crime prevention manager F.J. Collura of the Pasco County Sheriff's Office. "They want to do Christmas for their family. And they apply their craft a little harder."

The next two strikes were reported in the same minute, according to sheriff's spokesman Doug Tobin: 6:33 p.m.

At the Publix on Sunray Drive, Nicole Mattia, 31, was loading groceries into her car when a big, barefoot man in a Warren Sapp Tampa Bay Buccaneers jersey snatched her purse from the center console.

A bystander chased the robber across the parking lot to a golden-brown sedan. But he backed off when the robber pulled what looked like a silver gun.

The robber had apparently brought a getaway driver. They got away.

Meanwhile, Audrey Kouremitis finished a long day at the office and headed for the Winn Dixie on U.S. 19. She bought bananas, corned-beef hash and a 20-pound bag of dry food for her dog, Rosie.

A warm night had fallen. Her purse sat in the shopping cart. It was tan, fake leather, with a tassel on the shoulder strap. Inside was her debit card, her driver's license, an address book, a pair of silver earrings, a purple tube of lipstick, a sheet of paper printed with several online passwords.

And $3 in cash.

He must have been watching her when she came out. Maybe he was choreographing his steps. There he was, a young man with a blond crew cut, reaching around her with precision, collecting the purse, sprinting into the darkness.

"You're gonna be disappointed!" she yelled after him. "There's no money in there!"

Kouremitis is 57. She would have given him the money if he'd asked. She stood in the parking lot, trembling, as other men chased him across U.S. 19. The deputies brought aircraft and a tracking dog. They could not catch him.

What a waste, she thought. He could have been a track star.

Thomas Lake can be reached at tlake@sptimes.com or 1-800-333-7505, ext. 6245.

[Last modified December 21, 2006, 06:24:04]