DUNEDIN – A Clearwater man was arrested after robbing a woman at a Beall’s Outlet store parking lot in Dunedin on Aug. 31, according to a Pinellas County Sheriff’s report.
The victim had just stepped out of her car and was walking toward a trash can in front of the plaza when she noticed a blue vehicle backing up toward her, the report said. The suspect suddenly exited the driver’s side of the vehicle, grabbed her purse that was around her arm, then jumped back inside the vehicle and sped away. The tag number witnesses reported came back to a vehicle that had been reported stolen to the Clearwater Police Department from Clearwater Beach a few days before, the report said.
Sheriff’s detectives identified Lorenzo Hudson, 45, as a suspect and that he was possibly staying at the Casa Landa Motel at 1770 Fort Harrison Road in Clearwater. The Clearwater Police Department helped to check the motel, and when they arrived, they quickly discovered the stolen vehicle in the parking lot. They arrested Hudson in Room 5 where he was staying.
Detectives responded to the motel and also found Hudson in possession of the victim’s wallet and credit cards. They also learned he had just been released from the Pinellas County Jail the previous week after he had completed a sentence for stealing another car, the report said.
He was charged with robbery by sudden snatching, possession of paraphernalia, and grand theft of a motor vehicle and was being held at the Pinellas County Jail on a $10,500 bond. He was booked under the alias, Lorenzo Miguel Hosley.
