Here's Why You Shouldn't Try to Rob Someone Walking a Dog

Poop stain led cops to suspect in Miami
By Jenn Gidman,  Newser Staff
Posted Mar 31, 2022 11:17 AM CDT

Trying to rob someone walking their dog might not be the best idea—and not just because the dog might go on the attack. It was actually dog poop that helped lead cops to an armed robbery suspect this week, after he allegedly tried to hold up a woman in Miami while she was returning home from walking her dog. According to an arrest report, the woman had stopped in the stairwell of her Biscayne Beach condo complex in the city's Edgewater neighborhood on Monday night to allow her dog to do its business, and authorities say as she worked to clean it all up, 62-year-old William Carroll came up behind her, slammed her against a wall, and started trying to strangle her while holding a knife to her, per Local 10 and NBC Miami.

A male witness saw what was happening from a nearby balcony and yelled out he was going to call the cops, to which Carroll allegedly yelled back, "Shut up!," per the report. Police say Carroll attempted to rip off the victim's watch and bracelets, but that he fled with only her backpack and a bag that held her wallet and credit cards. Per WFTL, police received a call later that evening on a man fitting Carroll's description, and they say they encountered Carroll outside a local Pizza Hut, not far from where a knife and the victim's belongings were scattered on the ground.

Authorities say he denied being a part of the robbery, but he had a brownish stain on his shirt—an apparent remnant of the dog poop at the crime scene. Both the victim and the witness subsequently identified Carroll to police as the man who'd attacked the victim. Carroll was arrested on armed robbery and battery charges and booked early Tuesday into the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center. Records show he's being held without bond. The dog owner is said to have suffered minor injuries to her neck. (More weird crimes stories.)

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