A not-so-clean getaway after Winter Park robbery

One Orlando resident is behind bars after committing an alleged robbery in Winter Park with an unusual weapon.

Stacie McCullough was arrested last Wednesday by Winter Park Police after throwing a cup of bleach in a woman’s face and stealing her purse outside the Publix Super Market at the Winter Park Village.

Orlando resident Bernice Grigg was walking down Canton Avenue when McCullough approached her with a small cup, according to the arrest report. McCullough asked Grigg if she knew where Par Street was, to which Grigg responded she didn’t know.

The arrest report claims McCullough shouted “Turn around, you’re lying!” before throwing the cup of bleach in Grigg’s face and running off with her black purse, which contained $200.

A man driving past stopped his truck and intervened, pulling the purse from McCullough and returning it to Grigg, according to the report. Multiple witnesses claimed they saw McCullough drop a knife in the midst of the scuffle.

“I’ve been with the department since 2002 and I’ve never heard of an incident like this before,” said Sgt. Frank Cowart of the Winter Park Police Department.

Police tended to Grigg before the Winter Park Fire Department arrived and transported her to Florida Hospital South for treatment.

McCullough had fled the scene, but was later found by Winter Park Police officers hiding underneath a truck in the nearby Publix liquor store parking lot.

She told police that she “just laid down under the truck to take a nap,” according to the arrest report.

Further investigation showed that McCullough had also been driving a gold Chevrolet truck reported stolen by the Orlando Police Department.

McCullough was arrested and has been charged with robbery by sudden snatching with a firearm or weapon, aggravated battery on person 65 years of age or older and grand theft of a motor vehicle.

If convicted, McCullough faces a minimum of three years in prison for the battery charge alone.

Cowart said Winter Park continues to be a safe community where robberies are few and far between.

“You don’t see it very often,” Cowart said. “We, per capita, have a lot of cops on the street. It’s just a generally safer area than surrounding areas.”

The number of robberies in the city of culture and heritage has remained relatively low so far in 2015. Cowart said that, including last week’s incident, there have only been five robberies in Winter Park this year so far.

That’s a dramatic decrease after Winter Park saw three armed robberies in just a 10 day span last September, including one woman being robbed at gunpoint along New England Avenue.