MIAMI BEACH, Fla. – A man has been arrested in connection with last week’s robbery of a U.S. military servicewoman in Miami Beach, authorities confirmed.
Larry Bermudez, 26, was booked into the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center Thursday morning on charges of strong-arm robbery, aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, resisting an officer without violence and leaving the scene of an accident involving property damage.
According to the arrest report, Sarah Fuentes, 22, who is a petty officer in the U.S. Navy, was dining with her cousin in the outside area of Pura Vida at 110 Washington Ave. around 2 p.m. Aug. 23 when Bermudez snatched the woman’s Louis Vuitton purse from her.
Surveillance video shows Fuentes and her cousin Ruben chasing after the robber.
“Once he took off, I said, ‘We are in for a ride,’” Fuentes said.
Police said a struggle ensued and the victims clung onto the side of Bermudez’s car and through the driver’s side window as he drove away at a high rate of speed.
Police said he made a sharp turn, causing the victims to fall from the car.
“Sarah was stuck through the window with her feet next to me, and I held onto the door from the outside,” Ruben said.
“I was holding on the purse. My body was at a diagonal. I was on top of him, basically,” Fuentes said.
Fuentes and her cousin sustained minor injuries from the fall.
“I fell when the car was moving,” Fuentes said. “I fell, hit the ground. I was somehow able to see the tire before it hit me. I moved and it clipped my hair.”
Fuentes said in hindsight, she shouldn’t have chased after the thief.
“I told my family, ‘Why didn’t I just let him have my purse?’ That sucks. It was just an instinct, honestly,” she said.
According to the report, Bermudez then lost control of his vehicle and struck an unoccupied parked car before fleeing the scene.
The surveillance video and other investigative tools led police to Bermudez’s home on Wednesday afternoon.
Police said he hid in a bathroom and resisted being handcuffed by tensing his arms and failing to comply with commands.
According to the arrest report, Bermudez consented to having his apartment searched and officers found the same unique sandals that he was seen wearing in the surveillance video.
His damaged Acura was also spotted outside the home, police said.
Authorities said Bermudez identified himself in the video and admitted to being involved in a car accident. Police said he claimed that he had been using a heavy amount of narcotics the day of the robbery, but knew he had done something the next day when he saw that his car was damaged.
“I could have died. But I felt something in my head (that) I was going to be OK,” Fuentes said.
When asked by Local 10 News reporter Rosh Lowe whether Bermudez messed with the wrong person, Fuentes replied, “Yes. He messed with the wrong crew, in general.”
Bermudez was taken into custody and booked into jail early Thursday morning.