Tip leads to arrest in kidnapping on Gandy

A Gibsonton man is charged with kidnapping a 4-year-old boy on Gandy Beach.

By LEANORA MINAI

© St. Petersburg Times, published June 22, 1999

GIBSONTON -- The anonymous tipster called Friday and offered Pinellas sheriff's detectives the alleged kidnapper's name and a description of his car.

That led authorities to Austin Scott White, who was arrested Monday after detectives said he kidnapped a 4-year-old boy on Gandy Beach last week.

"The tip was very, very helpful," said Judy Vovan, one of three Pinellas sheriff's detectives who worked on the case.

After the tip came in, detectives showed photos to witnesses to identify White and obtained an arrest warrant before searching for him.

White, 35, is a steel worker who lives at 11126 Englewood Drive in Gibsonton. He was taken to the Hillsborough County Jail and booked in the Pinellas County Jail on Monday on a charge of kidnapping. No bail has been set.

On June 16, quick action by two women saved the 4-year-old boy from being driven away in a man's car on the St. Petersburg side of the Gandy Bridge.

About 1:45 p.m. just south of Gandy Boulevard, deputies say, a man approached the boy and his brother, 6, and asked if they wanted to go fishing. The boys' mother, Jacqueline Crosby, 29, and her friend Vanessa Alexander, 26, were swimming nearby. The women live in the same apartment complex in Thonotosassa in Hillsborough County.

The 6-year-old boy went over to the two women and asked if he could go fishing with the man.

Crosby looked up and could not see her 4-year-old, but she saw a gold Oldsmobile Cutlass driving away in the unpaved parking area between the road and Tampa Bay.

Alexander got in her Jeep, drove beside the Cutlass for several feet and cut it off before the stranger could pull onto the eastbound road.

Alexander saw the 4-year-old boy on the Cutlass' floorboard. She yelled at him to get out of the car, and he did. As Alexander grabbed the boy, the Cutlass drove off toward Tampa.

This is not White's first charge involving a child. In 1989 in Pasco County, White pleaded no contest to a fondling charge. He also has violated probation.

Kathy and John Zaccagnini, whose bedroom faces White's trailer, said he was always quiet, but about one week ago, they noticed more activity.

"I've seen him drive in and out," John Zaccagnini said. "Every half-hour he was in and out."

-- Times staff writers Jane Meinhardt and Sarah Lueck contributed to this report.

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