Hooded robber hits two Winter Park businesses

Winter Park Police are keeping their ears to the ground for an armed robbery suspect with an interesting fashion statement.

A man wearing a dark green jacket over a grey hoodie with cat “ears” sewn on top robbed the local clothing store Current along Park Avenue on Friday afternoon before robbing a McDonald’s the following day on Aloma Avenue.

The cat-eared suspect implied he had a weapon during both robberies and left with an undisclosed amount of money. Security camera photos show the suspect is a white male between 6-feet 2-inches and 6-feet 4-inches.

Lt. Pam Marcum of the Winter Park Police Department said a suspect wearing strange attire usually doesn’t help them make an arrest, but there’s always a possibility.

“It only helps if they’re caught in the act wearing that again,” Marcum said. “It could tie a person into crimes if they’re wearing the same thing, like the guy that Orange County arrested that was wearing the Batman costume.”

Marcum noted that crimes like this rarely occur within the city’s downtown business district.

“It’s a very busy area and there’s a lot of police officers that walk or drive their cars up and down the avenue,” Marcum said. “It’s fairly close to the police department as well. I would say that all of those factors probably play a part.”

The last robbery in the Park Avenue area was in September 2014, when two men along East New England Avenue robbed a woman at gunpoint. Suspects Devante Irin Rivers and Antonio John Ortiz were later arrested the following month for the crime.

That was one of three armed robberies in the span of just 10 days within the city. The Ravenous Pig off of Orange Avenue and the Payless ShoeSource off of Lee Road were robbed as well, though none of the robberies were connected.

Store management at Current did not respond to a request for comment following the robbery.