Family teams up for arcade robbery, with mom as the getaway driver, FL cops say
It happened Friday, July 18, at the Kings World Arcade in Fort Myers, and investigators say surveillance video led to the duo's capture days later.
'This family took game night way too seriously,' the Lee County Sheriff's Office wrote in a July 23 news release
'Witnesses reported a man entered the business, held the cashier at gun point, and fled with an undisclosed amount of cash. Surveillance footage from nearby businesses captured the suspect running and jumping into a RAV4.'
Sheriff's office analysts used Department of Transportation footage and license plate reader data to identify the vehicle's driver as Yideyla Suarez Cedeno, 43, of Cape Coral, officials said.
She was arrested Tuesday, July 22, and 'her son 22-year-old Jose Baez Surez, was also on scene and detained,' the sheriff's office said.
'Following an investigation by Violent Crimes Detectives, it was determined that Jose Suarez entered the arcade, demanded money and fled while his mother waited nearby, acting as the getaway driver,' officials said.
'Deputies recovered clothing along with a black BB gun, resembling the handgun used in the robbery.'
The mother and son have both been charged with robbery, officials said.
Fort Myers is about a 125-mile drive southeast from Tampa.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Los Angeles Times
06-08-2025
- Los Angeles Times
Tired of waiting for the city, Angelenos paint their own crosswalks. Some become permanent.
The streets around Stoner Park in Sawtelle are often filled with families on their way to the park, nearby day care and surrounding schools. Jonathan Hale, a local resident, believed the area was lacking a key safety feature: designated crosswalks. Hale recently took it upon himself to make a fix that he believed the city had overlooked when he purchased about $200 worth of paint and recruited neighbors to paint crosswalks around the park over several weekends. It's not the first time Angelenos have taken matters into their own hands to try to improve street safety by painting crosswalks at precarious intersections. Many get frustrated by how long it takes for the city to respond to requests through 311 and just do the job themselves. Sometimes the city removes the paint stripes; sometimes it moves to make them permanent. In Sawtelle, Los Angeles' Department of Transportation removed the unsanctioned DIY project about two months after the first stripe was painted, prompting an outcry among community members. The Transportation Department said crosswalks needed to comply with accessibility requirements before permanent installation. Then last week, the mayor's office announced that the crosswalks would be painted after all — before curb ramps and sidewalk improvements were made. 'Stoner Park is a key community anchor — a place where neighbors gather, kids play, and local events bring people together. When we talk about where L.A. comes together, it's places like Stoner Park,' Councilmember Traci Park, who represents the area and urged the city to add crosswalks around the park, said in a statement. 'That's why it's so important to prioritize pedestrian safety and make sure everyone can get around safely.' City officials did not respond to questions about whether its actions ignored state and federal guidelines. And although the Transportation Department said that no requests for crosswalks had previously been made at the location near Stoner Park, the mayor's office said that the Bureau of Engineering had received 'multiple sidewalk accessibility requests surrounding Stoner Park between 2017-2018.' 'The City makes thousands of critical infrastructure improvements and upgrades each year,' spokesperson Clara Karger said. City agencies often have pointed to funding constraints as a reason for delays, but the mayor's office did not respond to questions about the total cost for this project, which eventually will include the installation of curb ramps and sidewalk improvements. 'We will continue doing all we can to keep Angelenos safe — that includes pedestrians and park-goers,' Mayor Karen Bass said in a statement about the announcement. The decision raises questions about how infrastructure updates are prioritized by the city, which has struggled to keep up with a backlog of requests for street improvements amid ongoing traffic safety breakdowns. 'The Bureau of Street Services (StreetsLA) primarily uses our annual resurfacing program to determine the locations of access ramps that we design and install; we do not work off a request-based system,' said Dan Halden, the bureau's acting director of external relations. He said the budget for this fiscal year includes the installation of approximately 300 access ramps across the city. Hale, who moved to Los Angeles about a year ago from the San Francisco Bay Area, was pleasantly surprised to learn that the crosswalks would be restored after his initial efforts had been erased. If the city was struggling to improve residents' safety, he questioned the pushback to citizens' own efforts. 'We don't need years of studies to tell us that there should be crosswalks and slow streets by a park and schools and day cares — those are just obvious things,' said Hale, 25. 'If you stand on any one of these corners for long, you'll see kids running around and you'll see close calls … I figured that the crosswalk was something that benefited people and didn't hurt anybody.' The city's 10-year-old Vision Zero plan to eliminate traffic-related deaths has not come to fruition in Los Angeles. A recent audit found significant failures in the program. And the budget strains on the city's Transportation Department and the Bureau of Street Services could further delay goals around street safety. 'We have, per capita, some of the most dangerous streets in the country to walk around,' said Michael Schneider of Streets for All. 'I think this [DIY effort] is a reaction to that and a reaction to a local government not taking action.' Schneider said that the slowdown can in part be attributed to the city's understanding of accessibility guidance, which appears to differ in interpretation even among city agencies. *** Last week in Koreatown, a 9-year-old boy was fatally hit by a car while crossing the street on an electric scooter at 4th Street and New Hampshire Avenue. Concerns over the safety of that intersection previously prompted discussion for the installation of a roundabout. LADOT solicited feedback from the community in 2021, but nothing has been constructed. The Crosswalk Collective LA — a safety advocacy group whose tagline is 'We paint crosswalks. The city of Los Angeles doesn't keep us safe so we keep us safe' — gathered in Koreatown Saturday morning to paint crosswalks at the intersection. The group purchased the stencils that were used at Stoner Park and served as inspiration for Hale, but were not involved in his efforts in Sawtelle. That evening, residents gathered for a candlelight vigil to honor the young boy who died. One of the newly painted crosswalk stripes at the intersection had not been filled in. Instead, there was an inscription in the center: En Memoria De Nadir Gavarrete.
Miami Herald
24-07-2025
- Miami Herald
Family teams up for arcade robbery, with mom as the getaway driver, FL cops say
A family outing turned criminal when a man decided to rob an arcade and used his mom as the getaway driver, according to investigators in Florida. It happened Friday, July 18, at the Kings World Arcade in Fort Myers, and investigators say surveillance video led to the duo's capture days later. 'This family took game night way too seriously,' the Lee County Sheriff's Office wrote in a July 23 news release 'Witnesses reported a man entered the business, held the cashier at gun point, and fled with an undisclosed amount of cash. Surveillance footage from nearby businesses captured the suspect running and jumping into a RAV4.' Sheriff's office analysts used Department of Transportation footage and license plate reader data to identify the vehicle's driver as Yideyla Suarez Cedeno, 43, of Cape Coral, officials said. She was arrested Tuesday, July 22, and 'her son 22-year-old Jose Baez Surez, was also on scene and detained,' the sheriff's office said. 'Following an investigation by Violent Crimes Detectives, it was determined that Jose Suarez entered the arcade, demanded money and fled while his mother waited nearby, acting as the getaway driver,' officials said. 'Deputies recovered clothing along with a black BB gun, resembling the handgun used in the robbery.' The mother and son have both been charged with robbery, officials said. Fort Myers is about a 125-mile drive southeast from Tampa.
Chicago Tribune
22-07-2025
- Chicago Tribune
Chris Spear: America's truckers need a place to park — before it's too late
Every day, more than 3.5 million professional truck drivers keep America's economy on the move. They haul more than 73% of the nation's freight, ensuring that food reaches our shelves, medicine arrives at hospitals and manufacturers stay in business. But there's one thing many drivers can't count on at the end of a long shift: a safe place to park. For every 11 truck drivers on the road today, there is one truck parking space. When truck drivers are unable to find safe, authorized parking, they're stuck in a no-win situation — forced to either park in unsafe or illegal locations, or to violate federal hours-of-service rules that regulate their daily drive time to search for safer, legal alternatives. Many spend upward of an hour each day searching for parking — time that's unpaid and amounts to an average of $6,800 in lost compensation each year. In the worst cases, they're forced to park on highway shoulders, exit ramps or vacant lots, putting themselves and other motorists at serious risk. Delays in deliveries increase costs for businesses and consumers alike. Worst of all, the parking shortage contributes to thousands of accidents and dozens of fatalities each year. One of those avoidable tragedies occurred in 2023, when a Greyhound bus struck three semitrailers parked on the shoulder of an Interstate 70 rest area ramp in Illinois, killing three passengers on board the bus. In the agency's report on the accident released just a few weeks ago, National Transportation Safety Board Chairman Jennifer Homendy put the cause bluntly: 'Our investigation brought to light a critical shortage of safe truck parking and made clear a painful lesson: Until we address this important safety issue, lives are at risk on our nation's roads.' For policymakers and business leaders alike, the message is clear: If we want our supply chains to remain resilient and our roads to remain safe, we must invest in truck parking infrastructure. More designated rest areas. More capacity at existing facilities. Smarter deployment of real-time parking information systems. Last month, President Donald Trump's administration took a major step toward addressing this crisis, issuing project agreements to move forward more than $275 million in grant funding to expand truck parking access nationwide. Among the projects funded is nearly $180 million targeted at the Interstate 4 corridor in Florida, which will add 917 much needed parking spots across Volusia, Seminole and Osceola counties. Department of Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy's leadership, backed by Trump's commitment to the trucking industry, is a clear signal that Washington is finally listening. By increasing funding specifically targeted toward truck parking, they are addressing one of the most pressing and solvable challenges our industry faces. Congress can protect American motorists by passing the Truck Parking Safety Improvement Act, a bipartisan bill sponsored by Illinois Rep. Mike Bost that would authorize $755 million in dedicated funding over four years to expand truck parking capacity. These funds could have prevented tragedies such as the 2009 murder of New York truck driver Jason Rivenburg, who was shot and killed for the $7 sitting on the dashboard of his truck while parked in an abandoned lot he used out of desperation for rest. The $200 million allocated to truck parking in the House transportation appropriations bill released last week is a welcome start to preventing similar tragedies. A dedicated federal funding stream, paired with state-level grant programs, would cut through the red tape that often sidelines critical parking projects. These resources must be allocated in a targeted, flexible way that allows states to build, expand and modernize truck parking across freight corridors and logistics hubs. It's not enough to authorize projects — we must fund them with real dollars that reflect the scale and urgency of the problem. Accounting for 87% of truck parking spaces, the private sector plays a vital role in providing parking, but it cannot solve this alone. Market forces don't always align with safety and infrastructure needs. Truck stops face high land and development costs, and zoning hurdles often block new projects. That's why a public-private solution is not only prudent. It's essential. Arkansas Republican Rep. Steve Womack has proved himself a staunch advocate who was instrumental in including $200 million toward expanding trucking parking in last year's House transportation appropriations subcommittee funding bill. We need more champions like Womack in Congress who will help prioritize and accelerate funding, treating truck parking as the safety and commerce issue it is, rather than an afterthought. Truckers don't ask for much. They don't expect luxury accommodations or special treatment. What they do expect — and deserve — is a safe place to stop after moving America's economy day and night. Let's make sure they have it. Chris Spear is president and CEO of the American Trucking Associations.
