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LARGO, FL -- Police are still looking for 60-year-old Joe Torma a.k.a. 'Plasma Pat'.
Officials say he took $300 cash from a Largo victim in February when posing as a Wal-Mart employee who could get a cheap plasma TV - but instead pocketed the money.
Detective Brendan Arlington, who is working the case, has received at least three calls from Torma. Police spokesman Lt. Mike Loux said it's unusual for a suspect to call police and talk about their case.
In the recorded phone calls, Torma said he was pushed to the crimes because he was faced with a sick wife and a string of bad luck.
"You know, I've been married 44 years to this woman, you know? So I got homeless and did a few bad things. We lost our home, we lost our car, we lost everything we had, we had nowhere to live" Torma said.
He told the detective he has about 30,000 victims.
But near the Largo Wal-Mart on Missouri Avenue where police say Torma took off with a victim's money, is The Red Room Cafe.
There, bartender Charissa Van Overloop and owner Greg Petrakis say they both remember the night Torma was there and met the victim.
Van Overloop told us she doesn't have sympathy for Torma, despite his claims of being in a bad situation: "That's tough, but given the fact that he's bragging about ripping off 30,000 people, I would tell him to be like everyone else and get a real job instead of trying to take the easy way out."
Torma also told Detective Arlington he was hoping his children wouldn't find out about what he was doing. "Horrible, you know. My kids, I didn't want them to know I did nothing bad. They think I hustle. They think I play poker, they think that's all I play, you know," Torma said.
Over the phone, Torma also told police he was going to turn himself in. A week and a half after that promise, police have yet to see him in person.
Authorities think he is in Missouri, possibly on his way to Texas.
