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Crime journal

By TIMES WIRES
Published March 8, 2007

ST. PETERSBURG

MAN ROBS WACHOVIA BANK ON 66TH ST. N

Police are searching for a man who robbed the Wachovia Bank at 3131 66 St. N on Tuesday afternoon. Police say the man walked into the bank around 3:52 p.m. and gave a teller a note demanding cash. After receiving the money, the man ran out of the bank. Police say no vehicle was seen. The man, who appeared to be between 25 and 30 years old, had brown hair in a pony tail and wore a dirty Nike baseball cap, police said. He weighed 170 to 180 pounds, had a mustache and goatee, and wore orange-tinted sunglasses. He also wore a long-sleeved, white pullover shirt with purple panels on the sides, faded blue jeans and black sneakers, police said. Anyone with information can call police at (727) 893-4928.

TEMPLE TERRACE

Electrical fire damages condo

Investigators believe an electrical fire in a kitchen is the cause of an early-morning blaze that damaged one condominium and forced a 40-minute evacuation at the Preserve at Temple Terrace, a gated complex off Fletcher Avenue. No one was injured in the fire at 12835 Sanctuary Cove, which was reported at 4:37 a.m., according to the Temple Terrace Fire Department. The building's sprinkler system stopped the fire from spreading to other homes, investigators say. Building residents were evacuated for about 40 minutes while firefighters examined the building. The fire caused about $7,000 in damage, investigators say.

NEW PORT RICHEY

Teen used cocaine on bus, police say

Police caught a young male with cocaine on Tuesday. Nothing unusual, except he was in eighth grade. And they say he was using it on the school bus. At Gulf Middle School on Tuesday morning, a staff member got a tip that a 14-year-old student had cocaine on the bus, according to a police report. When she went to search the student, whom the St. Petersburg Times is not naming because of his age, he handed her a plastic bag with a white substance inside. He was charged with cocaine possession and taken to the Juvenile Assessment Center.

Sex offender accused of abuse

A registered sex offender from Louisiana was arrested Tuesday on new sex charges after a girl said he molested her when she was 11, some time in December 2005 or January 2006. Johnny Ray Baldridge, 34, is said to have been a guest in the girl's New Port Richey home. Baldridge was charged with capital sexual battery and lewd or lascivious molestation. He was held without bail at the Land O'Lakes jail.

DADE CITY

Slain baby's sister removed from home

Less than a week after an 18-month-old girl died of bleeding in her brain, a judge Wednesday removed her sister from the family home in Wesley Chapel. The Sheriff's Office is investigating the death of Ryanne Spohn, who died Friday afternoon after being rushed to a Tampa hospital for brain surgery. Her father, Jeffrey Spohn, told investigators she fell from a baby gate. Patrick Calcutt, Jeffrey Spohn's attorney, told Circuit Judge Linda Babb the parents had agreed to release custody of Macie Spohn, who turns 3 in July, to the girl's aunt and uncle.

[Last modified March 8, 2007, 01:28:49]