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Business deal in Hudson parking lot ends in robbery

 
Published Jan. 18, 2013

HUDSON — The deal was set to go down in a pub parking lot. Some kind of deal, at least.

The victim of the resulting armed robbery would later tell deputies he came to buy a television.

The defendant, reports say, was there to buy pills.

On Jan. 9, they met at Villa's Pub, 15915 U.S. 19. The victim said he brought $1,250 "to purchase a television," according to a Pasco County Sheriff's Office report.

William Vance, 33, pulled up in a white Ford pickup and told the victim to get in "because the television was at a different location," the victim told deputies.

At the intersection of Bella Via and Adobe Drive, the report states, Vance stopped the truck. Another man approached the passenger window, stuck a gun in the victim's face and demanded money, the report says.

Vance put a gun to the victim's back. A woman sitting between them in the truck grabbed the cash from his pockets, and the man still standing at the passenger-side window told the victim to get out.

When he did, the other man jumped in the truck, which drove away, the report states.

The report does not say how deputies found Vance, but he was arrested Wednesday. The report says Vance told deputies the original deal was for him to buy pills from the victim and that he decided to rob the victim of the pills instead. He said the female in the car was supposed to grab the pills, not the money.

Vance, of 12719 Parkwood St., was taken to the Land O'Lakes Jail on a charge of armed robbery. He remained in jail Thursday in lieu of $150,000 bail. Detectives are still investigating the case.