Man beats, robs couple at motel

The couple was in Tampa to visit Busch Gardens. But a robber beats both of them and steals $610 in daylight.

[Times photo: Thomas M. Goethe] Ardath Moore tells how a robber beat her and her husband Wednesday. The stains on her blouse are blood.

By KEVIN GRAHAM

© St. Petersburg Times,
published June 21, 2001

TAMPA -- Ardath Moore stepped out of her motel room Wednesday morning, ready to enjoy a day at Busch Gardens, and said a pleasant "good morning" to the man standing near her door.

But he was no fellow tourist.

In seconds, the man punched the 77-year-old woman in the eye and shoved her back inside the room. It was the start of a five-minute ordeal in which the robber hit Mrs. Moore and her 79-year-old husband, Kenneth, at least 40 times. He blackened both of Mrs. Moore's eyes and left Kenneth Moore unconscious with fractures to his face and a broken collarbone.

When the beating was over, the robber ran off with $610 in cash and the Ormond Beach couple's checkbook.

"I asked why he was doing this," Mrs. Moore said later, still in the blood-stained shirt she wore during the attack. "He said nothing, just hitting us. I was thinking, 'What can I do to get him to stop?' "

Police said the attack occurred at 7:20 a.m. in room 112 at the Red Roof Inn at 2301 E Busch Blvd.

The Moores were taken to Tampa General Hospital where Mrs. Moore received stitches in her upper lip and was released. Mr. Moore was being kept at the hospital Wednesday night for observation. He was listed in fair condition late Wednesday.

Mrs. Moore thinks the robbery was random.

"I think he was just after money," she said. "He looked like he was waiting on the first person to come out of their room."

The man would hit one of them while the other was down, Mrs. Moore said. When that person rose again to try to help the other, the robber would turn on them.

The "expression on his face was very determined," said Mrs. Moore, who has been married for 58 years.

The robber only spoke once during the attack, Mrs. Moore said, after her husband told him to "Leave my wife alone." The man told the couple to get down on the floor. By that point, the couple had been beaten so severely, they collapsed to their knees, she said.

After their attacker ran off, Mrs. Moore left her unconscious husband and made her way to the motel office to seek help.

"I'm thinking I was going to pass out on the way," she said at a news conference Wednesday afternoon at the hospital.

Tampa police are investigating the robbery. The Moores were able to give only an approximate height, weight, race and age of their attacker.

Mark Ferguson, general manager for the Red Roof Inn, said he has worked there for a year and during that time, there have been no robberies.

The Moores both work as nurses for a free clinic in Ormond Beach. They don't have any children but said they have helped raise seven foster children.

They arrived in Tampa on Tuesday night for a three-day stay. They planned to visit the Florida Aquarium and enjoy Busch Gardens for the first time in 20 years. She said they choose Red Roof Inn because they had stayed in the motel's chain before.

The attack ended those plans. Mrs. Moore said when her husband is released from TGH they will go home. But she's not afraid to return to Tampa, she said.

"The same thing happens in Daytona Beach," she said.

- Kevin Graham can be reached at graham@sptimes.com or (813) 226-3404.

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