Tip helps Hernando deputies nab suspected bank robber; bomb squad clears scene
SPRING HILL, Fla. - Deputies quickly caught up with a Hernando County bank robbery suspect Monday afternoon, thanks in part to a tip from a bystander.
Sheriff Al Nienhuis said a citizen called after noticing someone "driving erratically and acting strange" outside the Bank of America in Mariner Square Plaza and called deputies. Moments later, with a deputy already on the way, dispatchers got word of a robbery attempt at the bank.
The sheriff said the suspect suggested he had a gun and possibly a bomb, then ran out of the bank, carjacked a nearby vehicle, and sped away south on Mariner Boulevard.
The fleeing suspect was involved in a minor crash, the sheriff said, but kept going until deputies caught up with him less than three miles away near the St. Frances Cabrini Catholic Church.
The suspect is taken into custody (HCSO photo)
The man, whose name was not immediately released, was taken into custody there, just 10 minutes after the initial call.
Because there was "a mention of a bomb," Sheriff Nienhuis said, the Citrus County Bomb Squad was called to check the suspect’s car for any explosives. An area around the bank was evacuated as a precaution, but was cleared by 5 p.m.
No explosive was found.
Meanwhile, the sheriff credited the initial caller for giving deputies a head start.
"We actually had a tag [number] before the bank robbery was even called in," Nienhuis added.