By Tamas Mondovics
Deputies Make Arrest In Armed Robbery Believed to be connected to three other recent business robberies in the Tampa Bay area that include Plant City, Pasco County and one in Manatee County, Hillsborough County Sheriffs deputies identified and arrested a man whose crime spree included a recent robbery of the Circle K in Wimauma.
Deputies said that on Tuesday, June 16 at approximately 2:30 a.m., Orlando resident, Joshua Anthony Rivera, 28, armed with a sawed off shotgun entered the Circle K store at 5133 Hwy. 674 in Wimauma, approached the store clerk and demanded cash and cigarettes.
After given an undisclosed amount of cash and Newport cigarettes, Rivera fled the scene in a vehicle, possibly a 2004-2006 blue Ford Expedition.
HCSO added that five days earlier Rivera was featured in HCSO-TV News-Now committing an armed robbery at the Express Mart, 6812 N. 56th St. in Tampa and said that in that robbery Rivera was armed with a sawed off shotgun and pointed it at the store clerk and a child.
Upon his arrest, Rivera was charged with one count of Robbery with Firearm related to the robbery in Wimauma as well as with Violation of Probation for aggravated assault with a firearm that originated in Orange County Florida, and was booked into the Orient Road Jail where he is being held with no bond.
Suspect Arrested In Metal Theft Investigation HCSO’s District 4 Investigations Unit arrested Thomas Aaron last month for targeting the vacant Sweetbay grocery store at 1101 Bloomingdale Ave.
Investigators said that Aaron accessed the roof of the business and began dismantling the A/C units.
A security guard responded to the business in response to a pressure alarm from the business HVAC system. Upon arrival, he encountered Aaron throwing A/C parts off the roof.
Trying to outsmart the law, Aaron told the guard that he was hired to do demolition on the building, after which he gave the guard a fictitious name, Roderick Branfield, and left the scene in his car.
Further investigation, however, revealed that Branfield had been deceased since 2014. It was also discovered that Branfield had conducted more than 40 transactions at local scrap yards.
Detectives were able to obtain fingerprints from the scrap transactions, which were analyzed by the HCSO ID unit and matched the prints to Aaron. Photos of the transactions were also compared to HCSO booking photos of Aaron, leading to his arrest. Aaron was charged with over 40 felonies and was taken to Orient Road Jail.
