Buster the Crab claws its way home, sort of

Although only a shell of his old self, Buster the Crab has returned.

Like any good tale, especially in Ybor City, this one begins with a one-eyed sea captain and Ybor City native, Frank Pupello.

"I think it was in July of 1983," says the internationally known heart surgeon and son of Frank, Dennis Pupello. "We were on South Bimini in the Bahamas where we had taken our boat. Jim Perry was the sea captain. He was out of Tarpon Springs but had purchased a home on Bimini. Actually, the home had once been owned by Adam Clayton Powell Jr., that New York congressman who got in a lot of trouble and left the country.

"We were standing on the beach and Perry asked my dad if he wanted to see some land crabs. They are huge and you see them all over some of the Caribbean islands. The two of them went by boat to a nearby beach, where they had these huge land crabs running all over the place. They saw this one and one of them threw a towel over it and brought it back to our boat.

"My dad had decided to bring it back to Tampa and keep it as a pet. He collected odd things. He had a moat he kept a couple of small alligators in. He put it in a cooler and somehow it made it through customs and back to Tampa alive. We lived in Seminole Heights down by the river and dad dug a trench in the backyard, buried some chicken wire around it, made a cage and the crab had a new home.

"It stayed back there for about five months. Dad fed it dry dog food and it seemed about as happy as crabs get. One day dad went back and there was a hole where the crab had escaped.

"We looked around and figured he had probably gone into the river and that was that."

Buster meets the Arenas

Move ahead another six months and Anthony Arena picks up the story. If you've been around town you've heard of Sammy and Andrew Arena, who have been singing since their USO days and still do shows around town, whether you want them to or not. But there was also younger brother, Anthony, and a sister.

"We lived on Braddock Street also not too far from the river," Anthony remembered.

"I'm walking down the street and I see this thing out in the road and it's moving. I got a little closer and I could see this giant crab. I'd never seen anything like it. It started to chase me - those things are fast - and I took off, I went home and got a box and came back and dropped it over the crab. Somehow I managed to turn the box over with the crab inside."

Buster meets Buster

Not too sure what to do with his crab, Arena took it down to Agliano's seafood store in Ybor and handed the box to Buster Agliano, who was running the store with his father, Joe.

"Buster didn't know what to do with it either and put it under a huge can and left it overnight. The next morning Papa Joe comes into the store and sees the can moving. He picks it up and the crab takes off again."

Sadly, the crab's days were numbered and a few days later it passed away. The Aglianos had a net hanging on the store wall and had a taxidermist fix the crab up, polish the shell and they hung it on the net with some seashells and a large starfish.

Five years ago, after the passing of Buster Agliano, the store on Seventh Avenue was sold. Buster's daughter Stephanie decided she wanted the crab and took it home to her house. "I put it on a shelf in my room with my Batman and Shrek figurines."

Which brings us to last week's Gasparilla night parade in Ybor City and a chance meeting with Pupello and Stephanie's sister Aline. The doctor, who is now retired and does everything from playing with the legendary Tampa band The Rockers to working with some scientists on a healthier coffee, asked Aline about the crab that had once been in the store. He had heard about it but was not quite sure that it was the one and same crab that had come back from Bimini a quarter of a century earlier.

The reunion

Aline had no idea what had happened to it but mentioned it to her sister the next morning as the two sipped Cuban coffee at the Arco Iris restaurant on Tampa Bay Boulevard.

"I have the crab," said Stephanie who, despite an attachment to the critter, wanted what remained of Buster to go back to his rightful owner.

The reunion of Pupello and Buster the Crab was probably not the most emotional of reunions, but Buster now lies in a converted cigar humidor. Pupello said he plans on bringing Buster down to his office where he will get a place of honor on the wall.