‘It’s scary’: Clearwater neighborhood shaken up after bicyclist gets beaten and robbed

CLEARWATER, Fla. (WFLA) — A robbery caught on camera is leaving a Clearwater neighborhood shaken up.

“It’s scary,” Susan Stavrevski said. “I have kids.”

“Things like that do happen around here a lot, but right in front of my house is an eye opener,” Joe Kelly said. “Makes me lock my doors, double-check everything.”

Clearwater police said it all started on May 1 just before 7 p.m. at a gas station on the corner of Fort Harrison Avenue and Chestnut Street.

Surveillance footage shows a 19-year-old on a bike nearly colliding with a gray SUV in the parking lot.

“Apparently the driver of that car and then a passenger that he had picked up were outraged that that had happened so they proceeded to follow/chase the individual on the bicycle who was a 19-year-old,” Clearwater Police Department public information officer Rob Shaw said.

Detectives said that chase ended over a mile away.

A neighbor nearby captured what happened next on video.

Investigators explained that the two men ran the 19-year-old off of the road and then tackled him.

One of the men then punches the 19-year-old multiple times before stealing his bike.

“So they follow him, beat him, run him down, steal his bike and he’s left there bruised, battered and bloody, without a bike,” Shaw said.

Clearwater police are hoping someone will be able to identify these two men.

Detectives said the passenger was a bald man wearing a black shirt and jeans with full arm tattoos and possibly a neck tattoo.

They believe the driver is also a man, but with salt-and-pepper hair.

He’s said to wear glasses and wore what appeared to be a security uniform in the footage.

These are notable characteristics detectives hope will help someone recognize who the two men are.

Shaw advises drivers feeling an urge for road rage to remain calm.

“Move on,” Shaw said. “Certainly never chase somebody down, follow them probably for over a mile, run them off the road, beat them up, and steal their bike.”

“Nobody has a license to do that, and these two belong in jail,” he said.

Anyone with information on the identity of the two suspects should call Clearwater Police at 727-562-4242.

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