PASCO COUNTY, Fla. — Pasco County deputies are looking for a man who they say robbed an elderly man at gunpoint and stole his car.
- Elderly man carjacked, robbed at Bealls in Hudson
- The suspect pointed a revolver at the 88-year-old man
- Pasco County deputies on the search for the suspect
It happened Thursday afternoon outside Bealls Department Store on US-19 in Hudson.
Robert Rodriguez, 88, said he was there to buy his wife a Mother’s Day gift when an armed thief stole from him.
“I was getting out the car a guy with a revolver came to me, and put the revolver here, and asked me for my wallet. I pretended I didn’t understand what he was saying,” Rodriguez said.
A smart move, but Rodriguez says the robber wasn’t buying it.
“He told me, ‘Get out of the car. Get out of the car.’ I got out of the car. ‘Give me your keys.’ I gave him the keys, and then when I was out of the car, he just pushed me. I got a scratch here and over here and he just drive away in my car,” he said.
The 88-year-old was left with painful bumps and bruises after being pushed to the ground.
Investigators say they found Rodriguez’s stolen car abandoned on the side of a building about a mile from the robbery. And while the spunky 88-year-old is happy he got his car back, he’s still pretty shaken up about what happened.
“It was something I knew I had to deal with you know, but it’s difficult to explain what I felt,” he said. “It was a difficult experience you know, because it was the first time in my life somebody just punched me with a gun.”
Rodriguez said he was too shaken up to leave the house again Thursday, but he did make it out Friday to get his wife’s Mother’s Day present.
That suspect who robbed Rodriguez is described as a man in his 40s or 50s, 5-feet-6-inches to 5-feet-7-inches, 160 pounds, wearing all black, and sunglasses with clean shaven short hair.
If you have any information in this case, contact the Pasco County Sheriff’s Office at 1-800-706-2488 and reference case number #19-019309.