Two armed robberies involving three people and three cities ended in the detention of a get-away vehicle — and a continuing investigation.
A resident of a Perico Island apartment complex was robbed at gunpoint in a parking lot at 9:35 p.m. Nov. 5. She threw her purse at the man who demanded her belongings, and then she ran for help, according to a Bradenton Police Department report.
The Perico resident told police the man jumped into the passenger side of a dark gray Toyota Corolla with tinted windows that sped away.
About an hour later, two men reportedly fled in a similarly described vehicle after robbing a couple from Ireland who were visiting Bradenton Beach.
They had been walking from the trolley stop to their vacation condo in the 2200 block of Gulf Drive North when, from behind bushes in the 2100 block, two men appeared.
One pointed a gun at the woman and told her to drop her purse, and the other man demanded her husband’s wallet and phone, according to a BBPD report.
BPD and BBPD sent alerts to neighboring law enforcement to be on the lookout for the suspects and the get-away vehicle from the armed robberies.
BBPD Detective Sgt. Lenard Diaz said officers from the Sarasota Police Department spotted the vehicle from the BOLO alert.
At approximately 2:30 a.m., Nov. 6, the SPD observed a suspect vehicle in the 3200 block of Central Avenue. It next stopped in a driveway in a Sarasota neighborhood, according to SPD Officer Tyler Rossnagle’s report.
“I witnessed all occupants immediately jump out of the vehicle and attempt to walk away,” Rossnagle wrote.
He also reported a handgun and credit and debit cards were scattered under the vehicle, and marijuana and Xanax were found in the car. Cell phones and purses reported stolen in the two robberies were found in the vehicle, according to Rossnagle’s report.
The 2012 gray Toyota Corolla get-away vehicle was positively identified by the Bradenton victim, and towed to Bradenton Police Department, awaiting a search warrant, according to a BPD report.
Although the occupants of the vehicle were not immediately arrested on charges relating to the robberies, SPD arrested three of the four on other offenses, including drug, probation and license violations.
“I have no arrests and there are no arrests pending,” Diaz said about the Bradenton Beach robbery.
“They’ve been somewhat identified, but it has to be 100 percent positive. But we’ve retrieved everything. Everything taken from them, and from the Bradenton one, has been recovered,” he said.
Evidence from the scenes is being processed at a crime lab in Bradenton, Diaz added.
Lab results were expected between two weeks and two months, he said.