ATLANTA (AP) - Police believe a couple suspected in a series of robberies and abductions in Alabama and Georgia stole guns from a Missouri house a few days before the crime spree.
Police in Joplin, Missouri, wanted to interview suspects Blake Fitzgerald and Brittany Nicole Harper about the Jan. 22 break-in, "but they obviously left the area," Cpl. Chuck Niess told The Associated Press on Thursday.
Details of the Missouri burglary were reported by the Alabama news site Al.com (bit.ly/1T08vrM).
Police have linked the Missouri couple to a series of crimes in Alabama and Georgia, saying the offenses fit a similar pattern: People are robbed, kidnapped and let go unharmed, usually after a vehicle is stolen.
U.S. Marshals announced Thursday that they are offering a reward of up to $10,000 for information leading to the arrest of the couple, said spokesman Martin Keely of the Northern District of Alabama office. He said marshals are focusing their attention on Florida, Alabama, Georgia and Missouri, the states in which Fitzgerald and Harper are accused of committing crimes or have been spotted.
Keely said the couple is suspected in two Florida robberies in Walnut Hills and Destin on Wednesday. They were last seen driving a black Ford F-150 truck with a broken rear, right window.
Fitzgerald is described as a 5-foot-6 white male weighing about 160 pounds with a shaved head, hazel eyes and many tattoos, Keely said. Harper is a 5-foot-10 white woman weighing 130 pounds with blue eyes and blond hair.
"Thankfully, no innocent member of the public has been physically harmed by this modern-day Bonnie and Clyde, but the couple is armed and dangerous," Keely said.
Fitzgerald and Harper have been charged with robbing and abducting a hotel clerk in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, and taking his car to the Birmingham area. The clerk was let go in the upscale suburb of Vestavia Hills, where a woman was briefly abducted by two people who stole her family's Ford Edge SUV.
On Monday night, a gunman held up a young clerk at a Murphy Express station along Interstate 75 in south Georgia late Monday, taking money from the safe and cigarettes before forcing the clerk into an SUV where his female accomplice waited, authorities said. The couple drove about 15 miles before releasing the clerk unharmed, Perry police Lt. Ken Ezell said.
The hotel clerk who was abducted, Kyle Dease, told Al.com that he spoke with his captors during the nearly two hours he was held on the drive from Tuscaloosa to metro Birmingham. Dease said they told him they hoped to make it to Florida to get married and start a new life together.
Fitzgerald also told Dease that he did not plan on going back to prison.
"I'm afraid if the cops corner them, they're going to go out shooting because he definitely doesn't want to go back to prison," Dease said.
Missouri records show that in 2013, Fitzgerald and an accomplice were charged with burglarizing a Joplin woman at knifepoint in her home and making off with her purse, jewelry, electronics and a car. Fitzgerald entered an Alford plea - not admitting guilt but acknowledging the prosecutors had sufficient evidence for a conviction - and was sentenced in 2014 to a suspended seven-year prison term.
Fitzgerald also was sentenced in southwestern Missouri's Jasper County to a simultaneous 120-day term in a drunken-driving case. Last July, Fitzgerald pleaded guilty in a Missouri assault case and was sentenced to a suspended five-year prison term.
Earlier coverage:
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (AP) - An Alabama hotel clerk abducted at gunpoint says his captors shared glimpses of their life on the run, telling him they hope to make it to Florida to get married and start a new life.
Police say they have linked a Missouri couple to three crimes that cross state lines and fit a pattern: People are robbed, kidnapped and let go unharmed, usually after a car is stolen. Police identified the couple as Blake Fitzgerald and Brittany Nicole Harper of Joplin, Missouri. They're wanted for crimes in Alabama and Georgia.
Kyle Dease told the news site Al.com (http://bit.ly/1UJtddn) that during the nearly two hours he was held captive in a stolen car, he spoke with his abductors after they took him at gunpoint from the Microtel Inn and Suites in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, where he was the night clerk.
The couple entered the hotel around 6 a.m. Sunday, saying they'd run out of gas and were trying to get to Panama City, Florida, according to Dease. Moments later, Dease said, the man pulled a semiautomatic pistol and said he needed money and a car.
"At that point, I was just praying that nobody else walked into the lobby," Dease told Al.com. "He kept yelling at me, screaming at me. He said he didn't want to hurt me, but if he had to he would."
The man forced Dease out of the hotel, he said, and into a black Volkswagen Jetta that belonged to the clerk's girlfriend.
"They kept saying they wanted a fast car like a Mustang or Porsche," Dease said. "They said, 'We're not going to outrun anybody in a Jetta.'"
The couple was concerned about being tracked, Dease said, and said they had ditched a stolen SUV because it had a tracker. Once in Dease's girlfriend's car, they turned off the radio and ditched the GPS, he said.
By the time they arrived in the Birmingham suburb of Hoover, Dease said the couple blindfolded him. They then tried to rob a McDonald's manager outside her restaurant, demanding money and her car keys, according to Hoover police. The manager screamed, threw her keys on the ground and ran into the store as the couple fled, Capt. Gregg Rector said. The couple is suspected in the case but not yet charged, Rector said.
The couple has been charged with abducting a woman in nearby Vestavia Hills about 15 minutes after they left the McDonald's empty-handed, authorities said. The woman, like the other victims, was later dropped off unharmed.
Dease said he was told to exit the car at a condominium complex.
"I don't think they want to hurt anybody, but ... I'm afraid if the cops corner them, they're going to go out shooting," Dease said.
Missouri records show that in 2013, Fitzgerald and an accomplice were charged with burglarizing a Joplin woman at knifepoint in her home and making off with her purse, jewelry, electronics and a car. Fitzgerald entered an Alford plea - not admitting guilt but acknowledging that prosecutors had sufficient evidence for a conviction - and was sentenced to a suspended seven-year prison term.
The latest crime linked to the couple happened when a gunman held up a young clerk at a Murphy Express station along Interstate 75 in south Georgia late Monday, taking money from the safe and cigarettes before forcing the clerk into an SUV where his female accomplice waited, authorities said. The couple drove about 15 miles before releasing the clerk unharmed, Perry police Lt. Ken Ezell said.
They appeared to be heading south toward Florida, Ezell said.