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Armando Martinez
(Note: Articles Appear in Reverse Chronological Order)
Tab 8
The officers spent a week watching Burger Kings and McDonald's before opening time and after
closing, because those were the periods when the gang struck. The last two robberies were
committed early Monday, at Burger Kings in Miami and Coral Gables.
Once the robbers held up a Burger King 10 minutes before a policeman arrived on his off-duty
security job. Everything about the robberies indicated that the robbers planned well, probably
casing each place carefully.
That is what appeared to be happening a little after midnight Monday, in a gasoline station at the
corner of Le Jeune Road and Southwest Eighth Street. Robbery detectives Placido Diaz and
Boris Mantecon, the lead investigators, were touring restaurants not under steady watch when
they drove by a McDonald's next to the station.
They observed three guys who were observing the McDonald's, Diaz said.
"One was on the passenger side of their vehicle. One was standing by the gas station window.
One was standing by the pay phone, but he wasn't using the phone. Then for some reason they
left."
Diaz said the three drove to a Red Road intersection where there is a McDonald's and a Burger
King, and turned onto a side street. The officers followed, but it was a dead end. The other car
turned around and was nose to nose with the unmarked police car. Politely, the police moved
aside, let it pass and resumed following.
A little while later, the officers pulled the car over and arrested the people inside -- Harris, Mills
and Mann, they said -- on charges of loitering and prowling. They could not throw the key away
for that, but before the suspects were released, the police got their pictures and fingerprints.
On Wednesday, detectives showed photo lineups to Burger King and McDonald's employees
who had been robbed. Then they obtained arrest warrants on armed robbery charges, and early
Thursday went after the suspects.
Martinez was with a squad that followed Mills and Mann to the Goulds area of South Dade
before seizing them. "When they got far enough from home, we arrested them like a thief in the
night," he said.
Diaz and Mantecon went after Harris. They found him at his girlfriend's place, just waking up,
when they burst into the bedroom. Diaz said Harris looked surprised to see him and Mantecon,
the same ones who had stopped him on the street two days before.
"I know you," he said.
Compiled by: Sean Baenziger
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