MIAMI – Police in Miami busted an armed robber with several fancy timepieces on Monday afternoon.
They took him into custody at the new downtown Miami Publix, where Miami police officers had the suspect, who they said stole dozens of watches at gunpoint.
Police have identified the suspect as 64-year-old Billy Charles Williams.
In the street, just blocks from police headquarters, crime scene technicians cataloged the haul from the suspect’s backpack, all shiny and still tagged.
Over at WatchTime, half a mile away on Flagler Street, the employees were getting over being terrorized.
Carlos Alfonso said Williams ordered him and his three colleagues to the ground while pointing a gun at them and made one open the watch case.
“A lot of watches,” Alfonso said.
With dozens of watches in his bag, the suspect ran out while still pointing the gun at the victims.
According to police, Williams ran from officers to the nearby Publix, dropping the bag of watches while he ran.
It was there that witnesses alerted officers to Williams changing his clothes in a store bathroom.
Police said the watch store surveillance cameras caught everything and the images are now part of the evidence against Williams.