Crime of Desperation

Associated Press | February 7, 2000

Pinellas Park, FL—A man brandished a sex toy and threatened a clerk as he tried to hold up an adult bookstore, deputies said. Keith Vetter, 39, was arrested Saturday following the incident at the XTC Adult Super Center.

The bookstore was under police surveillance because it had been robbed twice in the previous three nights.

Vetter and his alleged driver and accomplice, Thomas Earl McHale, 51, were each charged with three counts of armed robbery.

Deputies said Vetter entered the store and threatened a clerk, implying he had a gun. All he had in his pocket, however, was a plastic bottle.

"In an apparent attempt to add further emphasis to his demand, he allegedly took what is known as a 'vibrating tongue' off the shelf and waved it at the clerk as he shouted for the money," said Pinellas sheriff's spokeswoman Marianne Pasha.

No one was hurt. Detectives are investigating whether the men are linked to other robberies in St. Petersburg, Largo and Tampa.

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