Masked suspect robs East Naples MetroPCS

EAST NAPLES, Fla. – Celldistributions Corp. is offering a $1,000 reward for any tip that leads to the arrest of a masked man who robbed a MetroPCS  store Tuesday night.

It happened at the store located near U.S. 41 and Collier Boulevard around 7:45 p.m.

“I just did a good deed, in all reality, a good deed.” Victoria Arellano was taking a break from her job at the Dollar Tree when, “I noticed that the dude was wearing all black, a black hoodie, black pants and a Halloween mask, all of a sudden he jetted into the Metro.”

The armed robbery was caught on the cell phone store’s surveillance system. In the video you see the masked robber run into the store, demand money from the employee and then sit down.

“I know there’s girls by themselves there at night working so I followed him in and sure enough he was robbing her.”

That’s when Arellano tells WINK News she confronted the suspect and called 911.

“I told him to get out of the store. And I can’t remember exactly what I said from that point on it was just all too fast and he just pulled the gun out and then he just ran and I kinda shoved him out the door a little bit.”

When we asked Arellano why she did it? “I don’t know, instinct I guess, just helping somebody out. I would have felt bad and guilty if something did really bad happen to her and I saw it and I didn’t do nothing about it.”

The manager of the MetroPCS tells WINK News the robber got away with $143.

Tuesday night’s armed robbery is the third at a MetroPCS in Collier County in the past four months.
WINK News reached out to the sheriff’s office and asked if the robberies are related. They said detectives are looking into it but say it’s too early in their investigation to say for sure.