A man was arrested for robbing a clerk at knifepoint, but was caught after police found a receipt with his EBT card number on it.
On Jan. 29 at 5:15 p.m. a man entered the Boost Mobile store located at 6318 U.S Hwy 19 and spoke to the female clerk about buying a cell phone.
The clerk went into a room in the back of the store to look for a phone. While she was in the room, he locked the front door.
When she left the room, he grabbed her by the hair and held a knife to her throat, and pinned her against a wall. The clerk tried pushing the man away and cut her hands on the knife.
The man demanded money from the cash register. After receiving the money he left the store.
Investigators determined the male threw a piece of paper in the garbage while inside the store. The paper was a receipt from a nearby Dollar General Store. The receipt showed an EBT (Electronic Benefits Transfer) card number.
Video was obtained from the Dollar General Store and investigators began tracing who the EBT card belonged to. The card was traced back to John McCarthy, a man familiar to the detectives.
McCarthy was just released from prison on December 14, 2016 after serving five years for a sex offense. McCarthy is a registered Sex Offender and his listed address is 7815 Niagara Drive in Port Richey Florida.
The clerk was able to positively identify McCarthy from a photo pack line-up.
Investigators arrived at the Niagara Drive address and found that McCarthy has not been seen there in
days.
McCarthy was found residing at 6641 Bandura Drive New Port Richey Florida while officers were investigating an incident unrelated to this one.
McCarthy was taken into custody without incident. During questioning he admitted to the robbery saying he was hungry and needed the money.
McCarthy was arrested for armed robbery with a deadly weapon, kidnapping while committing a felony and aggravated battery with a deadly weapon.
Additional charges are being considered because he failed to notify authorities within 48 hours of moving, which is a condition of his Sex Offender status.
