PORTSMOUTH, Va. (WAVY) — Police say a man wanted for the abduction and robbery of a Suffolk couple last week appeared on surveillance video that day in Portsmouth.
The video doesn’t show the man’s face, but does give a better image of who police are looking for. He was described as a white male, about 5 feet 5 inches tall with a skinny build. He was wearing baggy clothing, a baseball cap and a dark mask covering the lower half of his face.
Police say he was involved in a home invasion in Portsmouth on Oct. 1 before driving to the couple’s home in Chatham Woods in Suffolk, where they say he abducted them and made them withdraw money from an ATM.
The couple says the man didn’t hurt them, but they were shaken up after the encounter.
“It was almost as if he was apologetic, which I found odd, because he kept saying ‘I’m not gonna hurt you, just things are bad for me, I wish I wouldn’t have to do this.’”
The night began in the Port Norfolk neighborhood on Florida Avenue in Portsmouth last Thursday.
Chris Petros was inside his home when he was suddenly taken by surprise.
“I got up and yelled ‘Hey, what are you doing in here?’” he said. “He comes out of my bedroom and pulled a gun on me.”
That man is the same man caught on a Ring doorbell video checking out the Port Norfolk neighborhood before finding his way into Petros’ home.
“After he pulled the gun, I don’t’ remember much, but he pulled me back to my bedroom, and tied my hands behind my back using masking tape.”
For 10 minutes the two were alone in the house. The man wanted money, Petros said.
“I don’t have any,” he said.
Petros then made a run for it.
“I managed to get to the front door, but he caught up with me.”
Petros was wearing a ring on a necklace which the suspect grabbed as Chris was running away, and he now has a noticeable necklace burn on his neck.
“He left this mark when he grabbed the necklace as I was running away. I was able to get out the front door because the necklace snapped, but left the mark on my neck,” he said, gesturing to his neck.
Petros yelled for a neighbor to call the police. The man, who had followed Petros out of the house, then ran back in the house.
“He went back in and found my car keys, and walked out of the house and stole my car.”
In the Ring doorbell video, you can see the suspect in Petros’ car passing a pickup truck, hitting it before continuing on. You can hear the crash on video. You can also hear at the beginning of another video, Petros screaming as the suspect is running away.
The man then drove Petros’ car to a Suffolk neighborhood.
Tim Nelson and his wife Anne were at their home.
“I hear my wife scream… So I kind of bolted towards here like I was going to tackle the guy, but before I got there he pivoted around and pointed a gun in my face and I stopped dead in the tracks.”
The gunman forced the Nelsons back in their car, demanding at gunpoint that they drive to an ATM and take out cash, which they did. The limit of withdrawal is $500 dollars, which is what the man got away with.
“We were in the car… He had the gun pointed at my wife, and he said ‘Go in there and make it quick, and get me cigarettes,’ and I really thought that once I got in there that I was going to say something to the clerk, but I didn’t.”
Then they left the store. Shortly after that, the man got out of the car and left.
“It was almost as if he were apologetic, which I found odd because he kept saying ‘I’m not going to hurt you,’ just things like that.”
