Police in Florida recently arrested a man who allegedly dropped his gun during an attempted robbery and then returned to buy it back from the men he tried to rob.
Cedrick Mitchell, 39, of Bradenton, a city located just south of the Tampa Bay area, was arrested early Thursday morning and charged with home invasion robbery and resisting arrest. He is being held without bond at the Manatee County Jail.
According to police, the string of events that led up to Mitchell's arrest began at about 12:30 a.m. on Thursday. He allegedly forced his way into a room at the Royal Motel in Bradenton that was rented by two men he did not know and asked them for pills.
"There were no pills there, and then [Mitchell] attempted to pull out a firearm and rob them," Bradenton police Capt. Warren Merriman told The Huffington Post. "There was a struggle, the gun fell, and the two male victims were able to obtain the firearm. The suspect fled the scene."
While anyone else might have licked his wounds and chalked the whole thing up as a failure, Mitchell apparently had other thoughts.
"He went back a few minutes later and wanted to buy the gun back from the victims for $40," Merriman said.
The victims were not interested in selling, and the trio began another scuffle, during which Mitchell was hit in the face with pepper spray. Officers arrived on the scene minutes later and took him into custody after a brief chase.
According to the Miami Herald, Mitchell has a prior criminal history that includes robbery convictions in 2009 and 2001, convictions for battery and providing false information to an officer in 2009, and a no-contest plea to a petty theft charge in 2005, for snatching $100 from an undercover officer who was trying to purchase rock cocaine from him.
Police officers remain puzzled by Mitchell's most recent alleged criminal mischief -- mainly the fact that he returned for the gun, which Merriman said was not even registered in Mitchell's name.
"He could very easily have walked away, and [the victims] probably would not have called about the initial incident," the veteran officer chuckled.
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