MIAMI-DADE COUNTY, Fla. — A man’s own Google searches would tie him to an armed robbery in which he followed and then pistol-whipped a senior who had just withdrawn money from a northwest Miami-Dade bank, deputies said.
Virgil Lamonte Woodson, 30, of Miami Gardens, is suspected in a series of similar incidents, authorities said. He had been jailed for two days short of a year on multiple felony charges and arrest warrants from other counties and another state when two new charges were added on Monday.
Woodson’s modus operandi involved following “unsuspecting” victims after they visited a bank, ambushing them at gunpoint and then fleeing in a silver Toyota Corolla.
Deputies said in this case, Woodson targeted a 67-year-old woman who owns a restaurant in the unincorporated Country Club area, north of Miami Lakes.
According to an arrest report, on June 12, 2024, she exchanged currency at a Bank of America branch at 18400 NW 167th Ave. and then parked behind her restaurant, located in the adjacent Country Club Plaza strip mall, just before 10 a.m.
Woodson, “armed with a handgun, and wearing a hoodie, mask and gloves,” was following her, Miami-Dade Sheriff’s Office deputies said, and came up to her from behind as she got out of her vehicle.
Authorities said Woodson pointed the gun at her and the two struggled over her purse, leading Woodson to pistol-whip her on top of her head, leading her to give up her purse. Woodson fled in the Corolla, the report states.
According to the report, investigators with what was then the Miami-Dade Police Department were able to tie Woodson to the crime and arrested him on Aug. 12, 2024, on unrelated charges.
Authorities said cellphone records placed Woodson near the bank and restaurant at the time of the crime.
Additionally, they said a data extraction from his phone revealed incriminating Google searches: Multiple queries for “robbery in Miami Lakes” and for the victim’s name. Deputies said Woodson and the victim had “no prior connection.”
Authorities said when they executed a search warrant at Woodson’s home in the 21000 block of Northwest 40th Circle Court, they found the woman’s car keys, which had been in her purse at the time of the robbery.
Woodson remained in the Pre-Trial Detention Center as of Tuesday.
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