Two Women Robbed By Same Suspect, Police Say

SEBRING - In Sebring Police Sgt. Mike Warner's own words, the police "beat the bushes for hours" Saturday looking for a suspect linked to a carjacking and robbery that morning.

A man smacked a woman to the ground, snatched her car keys and drove off with a 2000 Chevy Cavalier shortly after 9 a.m. Saturday. About eight minutes later, a car matching that description was used as the getaway vehicle after a man, matching the description of the suspect in the previous carjacking, snatched a purse out of a 72-year-old woman's lap as she sat in a car.

"That's the type of crime I won't stand for," Warner said in a phone interview Sunday.

According to Warner, a short black male approached the first victim near the Sebring Public Library before 9 a.m. and said something to her. Before she responded, the suspect struck her down to the ground, grabbed her car keys and took off in her car.

A witness who saw the carjacking pulled a fire alarm at the library to try to scare off the suspect after she feared for the victim's life. The victim was later treated for a cut across her nose.

Eight minutes later, a tan car matching that description pulled up to the Seventh-day Adventist Church at State Road 17 and Suniland Drive in Sebring.

The elderly victim told Warner that the man approached her while she was sitting in her car and asked how she was doing.

He then pointed toward Dinner Lake. As the woman looked, the man suddenly yanked her purse out of her lap and took off in the sedan.

Warner said the woman "was off" in describing the clothing when matching up to the first victim, but otherwise the two victims gave identical descriptions of the suspect's short height, race and his short afro. The elderly victim's description of the car used by the suspect in the purse snatching matched the car stolen from the first victim.

As of Sunday morning, neither the suspect, the stolen Cavalier nor the purse was recovered. The Cavalier's license plate is C688PX.

Warner said anyone with information on the carjacking or the purse snatching should either call the Sebring Police Department at 471-5108 or Sgt. Mike Warner directly at 381-2165.