Weather | Sports | Forums | Comics | Classifieds | Calendar | Movies
By Times staff writers
© St. Petersburg Times, published February 10, 2001
Be alert for con artists' banking scam, police warn
ST. PETERSBURG -- Police are warning elderly residents about a pair of con artists who pose as police detectives and who claim to be investigating bank tellers.
The fake detectives have been targeting women who live alone in north and west St. Petersburg, persuading them to withdraw cash from their banks to help out in the "investigation."
They have tried this scam 12 times in the past month in St. Petersburg, and several times in the rest of Pinellas County, said St. Petersburg police Detective Rickey Barber.
Typically, one con artist will call a woman's home, identify himself as a police captain and ask about the woman's bank accounts. During the phone call, a second man will come to the door carrying a badge and identifying himself as a police detective.
He will tell the woman that a bank teller is cashing checks under her name. He will ask the woman to help him catch the teller in the act. He will then talk the woman into withdrawing money and handing it over.
Anyone with information is asked to call Detective Barber at 893-4909.
ODESSA -- A Tampa man was arrested Thursday night after leading authorities on a chase and crashing into two cars, the Pasco County Sheriff's Office reported.
At 7:30 p.m., Deputy Bennie Barrington clocked a 1977 Chevrolet Nova driving west on State Road 54 at 82 mph. Barrington turned on his lights and pursued the Nova, which sped up to 90 mph and passed three cars, once driving onto the grass to go around another westbound vehicle, according to reports.
West of Gunn Highway, the suspect lost control and sideswiped two eastbound cars, the Sheriff's Office said. No one was seriously injured.
The Nova's driver, 19-year-old John Goedtke of 7517 40th St. in Tampa, tried to run away, but Barrington tackled him and arrested him. Goedtke told authorities that he ran because he didn't have a valid driver's license.
Goedtke was charged with reckless driving, felony fleeing to elude and driving on a suspended license. He was released Friday from the county jail in Land O'Lakes on his own recognizance.
ST. PETERSBURG -- Police seized about 115 marijuana plants Friday from a house in the Jungle Terrace neighborhood west of Tyrone Square Mall, authorities said.
Narcotics officers searched the house at 8141 25th Ave. N and arrested its resident, Charles Pendleton, 32. They confiscated about 71/2 pounds of marijuana with an estimated street value of $30,000, as well as a shotgun and $4,000 cash, according to the Pinellas County Sheriff's Office.
Authorities got an anonymous tip about the house three months ago, said sheriff's Sgt. Greg Tita.
Pendleton, who had no criminal record in Pinellas County, was charged with cultivation of marijuana, felony possession of marijuana and possession of drug paraphernalia. He was being held Friday in the Pinellas County Jail in lieu of $10,150 bail.
ST. PETERSBURG -- A 20-year-old man riding a motorized scooter remained in critical condition late Friday after being struck by a car.
Erik J. Clayton was hit at 43rd Street and 17th Avenue S after he failed to stop at a stop sign, said Officer Mike Preshur.
Clayton's unlicensed scooter was struck by a Toyota driven by Nicole C. Clemons, 25. She was not hurt. Clayton is recovering in the neurointensive care unit at Bayfront Medical Center.
TAMPA -- A man accused of killing a convenience store manager on New Year's Eve faces charges relating to an attack on a woman a month earlier.
Jewel Atkins, 20, has been charged with sexual battery, kidnapping and carjacking. He already was in jail on a charge of first-degree murder in the shooting of Rainbow Food Place manager Sissay Belete. Robert Bellamy Miller, 25, also was charged with first-degree murder in Belete's death.
The new charge comes from the abduction and sexual battery of a 21-year-old woman Dec. 1.
TAMPA -- Hillsborough sheriff's deputies are looking for a band of armed robbers who appear to be targeting the homes of migrant farm workers. There have been about eight incidents since Dec. 22, all in the Dover area, said sheriff's Lt. Rod Reder. Reder said in every case, the men, armed with semiautomatic pistols and wearing ski masks or bandanas, kicked in doors, then confronted the victims in their homes. The suspects speak only in Spanish to the victims, he said. After robbing the homes, the men leave on foot.
TAMPA -- A man accused of killing a convenience store manager on New Year's Eve faces charges in an attack on a woman a month earlier.
Jewel Atkins, 20, has been charged with sexual battery, kidnapping and carjacking. He already was in jail on a charge of first-degree murder in the shooting of Rainbow Food Place manager Sissay Belete. Robert Bellamy Miller, 25, also was charged with first-degree murder in Belete's death.
Atkins is now accused of the abduction of a 21-year-old woman Dec. 1. Atkins and another person forced the woman into the trunk of her car at gunpoint about 1 a.m., according to sheriff's spokesman Rod Reder. The woman was bound with duct tape and driven to the vicinity of 53rd Street and Hanna Avenue, where she was sexually battered.
Investigators lifted fingerprints from the duct tape that had been used to cover the victim's eyes, Reder said, and matched them to Atkins'.
The other attacker remains at large.
TAMPA -- Sheriff's deputies have arrested two 16-year-old boys and charged them with criminal mischief for damaging Gaither High School's soccer field.
About 4 a.m. Sunday, someone drove a pickup truck through a gate and onto the field. The estimated damage to the field and a soccer goal is $2,000, sheriff's spokesman Rod Reder said. The damage caused school officials to reschedule a soccer game Friday night.
Authorities say the driver of the truck was arrested at his residence and taken to juvenile detention. He has been charged with felony criminal mischief. The passenger has been charged with misdemeanor criminal mischief.
The Times is not naming the suspects because of their age.
LARGO -- A transient accused of cutting the throat of a Palm Harbor man for his truck and credit cards has pleaded guilty to a second-degree murder charge.
A Pinellas-Pasco circuit judge sentenced Darran Scott Reppond to 35 years in prison for the April 2000 stabbing death of Joseph F. Hart. Hart was killed not long after the pair met at a Tampa lounge.
Prosecutor Pat Siracusa told Judge Nancy Moate Ley on Thursday that Reppond, who has a long history of drug abuse, slashed Hart's throat and then fled with Hart's 1994 Ford Bronco, $50 in cash and some credit cards.
Reppond, 30, had faced a possible sentence of life in prison after a grand jury initially indicted him on first-degree murder charges. Reppond also is accused of a 1998 killing in Lafayette, La., and police there say he already has confessed to that slaying and is expected to be extradited later this year.
Hart, 61, and Reppond met at the KiKiKi Lounge on Kennedy Boulevard in Tampa. Police said Reppond told Hart that he had been in Tampa only a short time and needed a place to stay.
Hart offered to put him up at his Palm Harbor home at 2950 Tangerine Ter.
The victim had no defensive wounds on his body. Reppond's footprint was found in a bathroom, and a fingerprint was found on a knife in the kitchen that was similar to the murder weapon, Siracusa told the judge.
The 35-year sentence Reppond received is above state guidelines for a second-degree murder conviction.
Hart, a divorced father with two adult sons, worked mostly from his home for his own business, Sana-Med Inc., a medical and pharmaceuticals distribution firm.