30-04-2025
Thousands saw him protest in Tampa. Then he drove through a building.
A South Tampa man whose protest became a familiar sight for thousands of local motorists before it turned violent has been found mentally incompetent to stand trial. He had been set to defend himself on charges that he crashed his truck into an office building over a customer service complaint.
Nearly every day since last spring, retired security guard Robert Beaty, 70, sat in a folding chair with his dog and a cooler to protest the veteran-focused banking and insurance company USAA.
Seated across from USAA's 128-acre New Tampa campus or along busier Bruce B. Downs Boulevard nearby, Beaty's signs read 'thou shalt not steal' and 'Unfair to Seniors Anti American.' His quiet consistency through rain and heat made him an object of fascination.
The situation exploded Dec. 3. In a red pickup, Beaty blew through a security checkpoint at USAA's front gate. Wearing a bicycle helmet he'd bought for the occasion, he drove up a parking garage, reversed into a security vehicle and crashed through two sets of entry doors.
When guards pulled Beaty from his totaled truck, it was resting against toppled turnstiles that the campus's 1,000-plus workers pass through.
One witness described Beaty shouting at her before driving right at her. She scrambled to use her employee badge to run inside, she told police, just before the entrance exploded behind her. Another employee, USAA security told police, fell and broke her arm while fleeing.
Beaty, speaking to the Tampa Bay Times, claimed the area appeared unoccupied. He told police he'd not intended to hurt people but wanted upper management to speak with him.
Beaty's jury trial, previously set for May 6, is postponed indefinitely. Per Florida law, he'll be referred for mental health treatment to attempt to restore competency. If deemed a danger, he could be civilly committed.
If Beaty regains competence, he'll face up to 15 years in prison at trial for each of the two felony charges of aggravated battery with a deadly weapon. If he doesn't regain competence, the charges will be dropped.
After Beaty pleaded not guilty in December, a judge ordered him to stay away from USAA. Two days later, he was back protesting along Bruce B. Downs, a half-mile from the USAA entrance.
Nearly every day since, he's been there. In April, prosecutors asked a judge to make him leave. The judge ruled that Beaty was allowed to continue demonstrating in his spot.
Beaty spends his time as a Christian evangelist, he said, traveling the state and chatting up strangers about Jesus. His only previous legal trouble came in 2016, when he was caught driving on a suspended license.
Beaty's protests were often joined by others who waved to cars and held signs reading 'ladrones,' Spanish for 'thieves.' The Times learned that Beaty had been paying those people as much as $100 a day to join him.
He started the protest, he said, after USAA refused to hand over funds he'd inherited from his late mother's account. USAA asked him to file certain paperwork to access the money. He says he couldn't file that paperwork until USAA provided him with account info — a supposed endless loop he called the 'carousel of confusion.'
'USAA is committed to doing the right thing for members and their families,' the company wrote in a statement. 'We always confirm that individuals seeking access to an account owned by a deceased member have the legal authority to do so.'
USAA would not discuss specifics but said it does its part to keep members' accounts secure, to clarify all needed documents and to simplify the process.
Barbara Brown, a probate lawyer in Tampa Bay who was not involved, said the situation sounds like the kind of confusion that happens when heirs try to prepare court filings themselves and get faulty legal information on the internet.
Exhausted by phone calls, Beaty said that in May he went to the Tampa campus, which has never served customers in person, and asked to speak to someone. Turned away, he started showing up with signs.
The company was aware of Beaty's activity. At least twice, Tampa police said, an officer had, at USAA's request, stood by as employees visited the protest to try to communicate with him.
On Dec. 3, Beaty was protesting when people in suits came out of the gate to tell him it was over. They'd made an exception. A check was in the mail. But when Beaty learned the amount — around $40,000 — he says he made it clear he wasn't satisfied.
Shortly after, he crashed into the building.
'Pennies on the dollar,' he called the check later, saying he'd never cashed it.
Beaty told the Times he had documents proving he'd been mistreated and would provide them, but he never did.
Faced with more questions about the probate process and what information he'd provided to USAA to prove he represented his mother's estate, Beaty declined to talk about it in any more detail.
As for the crash, Beaty said he'd just gotten mad.
'But no, I don't feel bad,' he said, 'because I did the right thing.'
In a written statement sent before Beaty was found incompetent, a USAA spokesperson called it an 'irresponsible and reckless act' that injured more than one person. 'We believe that any issue can be solved peacefully and productively,' it read.
In February, Beaty said he believed that if he got the right jury, he'd be acquitted. He wasn't worried that the trial would focus on the details of the crash and not USAA's customer service. Regular people, he said, would be on his side.
