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Police: Woman Claims Robbery To Avoid Paying Rent

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By KYLE MARTIN, Hernando Today

Published: December 6, 2007

SPRING HILL - Even with a helicopter searching from the sky and a K-9 unit tracking on the ground, deputies were unable to find a man who robbed a woman in her home Monday morning.

It's likely, because the suspect didn't exist.
Deputies say Kelly Owens called the sheriff's office at 9:38 a.m. to say a man confronted her as she pulled into her garage at 8363 Nevada St.

The man ripped her purse off her arm, but it fell and her wallet spilled out onto the floor, Owens allegedly told a deputy.

The suspect picked up the wallet, which contained $754 in cash, and ran out the open garage door in a southwest direction, Deputy Louis Roqueta was told.

Roqueta noted in his report that Owens had some redness on her right wrist, supposedly from the struggle.
Deputies formed a dragnet around the neighborhood, looking for a suspect described as a white male in his 50s with salt-and-pepper hair.

A detective questioning Owens later grew suspicious and eventually earned a confession from her that she made up the story because of financial difficulties, a report states.

Marion Quellhorst called Hernando Today from Long Island on Tuesday to elaborate.

As Owens' landlord since April, Quellhorst was the one Owens called to explain that the rent couldn't be paid for December. She had just been robbed of the cash.

"I believed her for about three seconds," Quellhorst said.

The ruse didn't work. Quellhorst still wants the rent so she can pay the mortgage on the house, and Owens, 38, is now charged with filing a false police report, a misdemeanor.

Reporter Kyle Martin can be reached at 352-544-5271 or kmartin@hernandotoday.com

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