Weather | Sports | Forums | Comics | Classifieds | Calendar | Movies
By Times staff writer
© St. Petersburg Times, published March 14, 2001
Deputies say man hid in woman's shower
WESLEY CHAPEL -- A Land O'Lakes man was arrested Friday after a woman returned home from the post office and found him hiding in her shower, Pasco County Sheriff's deputies said.
Robert Michael Whitson, 20, of 23718 Terrell Lane was charged with armed burglary, possession of burglary tools and operating a vehicle with an open title, deputies said.
Christine Bailey of 6010 Boyette Road left Monday morning for the post office, deputies said. When she returned 10 minutes later, a gray Nissan pickup was parked in her driveway. Afraid someone might be inside her house, she had a neighbor check the house with her.
While searching the house, she saw the shower curtain in her bathroom move, deputies said.
When she opened it, she screamed, deputies said.
She was standing face to face with Whitson, an old friend of her son, deputies said. Whitson was holding a steel rod.
She and the neighbor kept him inside until police arrived, deputies said.
Whitson told deputies he came to the house to get Bailey's son's phone number and found no one home, deputies said. Deputies said he used a screw driver to open a window to the garage and the door to the house. Deputies said he told them he had the screwdriver because it had fallen out of his truck.
He told deputies he had the steel rod to protect himself against the family's dog, they said.
Deputies also said that Whitson had not registered his truck.
Whitson was being held Tuesday afternoon at county jail in Land O'Lakes on $30,500 bail.
ZEPHYRHILLS -- Police are looking for a man who hit a 65-year-old woman on Tuesday morning, helped her into a nearby business and then fled.
Wanda Stratton Scruggs of Zephyrhills was walking east across Sixth Street at about 10:08 a.m. when the man, who was driving south on Sixth Street and about to turn west on State Road 54, hit her, Capt. Richard Scudder said.
He got out of his vehicle, thought to be a dark-colored Plymouth Voyager minivan, and helped her into a nearby business, Scudder said.
When people at the business asked for his information, he said it was in his vehicle, went outside and fled, Scudder said.
The woman was taken to East Pasco Medical Center and may have suffered a broken wrist, Scudder said.