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Suspects in home invasion arrested
By CHRIS TISCH, Times Staff Writer LARGO -- Years ago, a nice older man and an accommodating waitress who served him a daily breakfast became friends. The man, Don Warneke, gave the waitress, Susan Hawkins, money when she had financial problems. Warneke even helped out Hawkins' son, buying him a cell phone and giving him about $400 to help pay his rent. The son, Gary Betz, 22, was messed up with marijuana, ecstasy, roofies, LSD, Valium and hydrocodone, his mother said. Lately, it was heroin and, his family fears, crack cocaine. On Thursday night, two masked robbers -- one male, one female -- barged into Warneke's home in East Bay Oaks. They used duct tape to tie him up and seal his mouth. They swiped his phone and $200 in cash from his wallet and money clip before taking off in his white Lincoln Town Car. It took Warneke, 81, about an hour to free himself. The next day, Hawkins heard reports of the robbery and figured the victim was Warneke. And because she hadn't heard from her son in several days, she feared that he and his girlfriend were involved. A roll of missing duct tape sealed it: The tape had sat on the dining room table at an uncle's house where Betz had been staying. But it was gone, as were Betz and his girlfriend. "I just added things up," said Steve Dooley, Betz's uncle. "It (the tape) was just there the day before and it was gone." Family members called Largo police. After tracing calls Betz had made on a cell phone, police arrested him and his girlfriend, Heather L. Crouse, 23, on Monday in Tampa. The pair were sitting inside the stolen car outside a towing business they had called from the cell phone, said Largo police Detective Keith Barton. Both were arrested on charges of possessing a stolen vehicle. Betz also was charged with a litany of warrants. Barton said investigators plan to obtain arrest warrants today charging both Betz and Crouse with home invasion robbery. Barton said syringes littered the inside of the Town Car. He said Betz was remorseful. Betz's arrest was a relief to family members, who have fretted since Friday that Betz would do something more to hurt himself or others. They also hope he can get help for his drug addictions. "I'm ashamed that he had to go this far," said Hawkins. "When you're that screwed up on heroin, I think you're desperate." Warneke was en route to Michigan on Monday and could not be reached. Besides the drug charges, Betz has been arrested in Pinellas County on counts of driving with a suspended license, prescription fraud, battery on a pregnant woman, theft and writing bad checks. Family members think Betz's drug problems began in his teens, then escalated. They say he came home with bloodshot eyes and wrote checks on closed bank accounts. Arrests started to mount. He went into rehab once and was clean for six months, but slipped. Family members tried to get him counseling, but nothing stuck. He overdosed at a gas station in Tampa about nine months ago, his family said. A judge ordered him into drug treatment in Pinellas County, but family members said he was placed on a waiting list because the treatment center was full. Dooley said Betz had been staying with him off and on for the last couple of weeks. He recently returned to Florida from Cincinnati with plans to turn himself in on the outstanding warrants and clean up. Dooley said Betz had told him: "I promise I'll get straight, Steve. I promise I'll go straight." But last week, Betz stole a bank card from Dooley's wallet, even though Dooley had stuffed it under his mattress to hide it from him, Dooley said. Betz figured out his personal identification number and withdrew $100, Dooley said. Then came the missing duct tape. After receiving a phone call from Betz's family Friday night, officers visited them, then called Barton. He and fellow Detective Joe Coyle worked Saturday trying to track down Betz. After the robbery, Betz continued calling family members, pleading for money. When he talked to his grandmother over the weekend, she asked him about the car. Betz denied committing the robbery but assured her the car was okay. "We knew right then he was high," Dooley said. "His grandmother laughed at him and said, "I love you -- goodbye.' " Despite her son's missteps, Hawkins said Betz is not a violent man. She said Warneke doesn't want him to get a long prison sentence. "He doesn't want him to go to jail," Hawkins said. "He'll probably help me get an attorney for him. He said, "He didn't hurt me.' " Dooley said the ordeal shows the damage drugs can do to a young life. "I'm glad he's safe, and I'm just hoping he can get help instead of a lot of prison time," Dooley said. "He's a good kid. When he's straight, he would do anything you asked and then some."
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