How was your day at the beach? Florida police say a naked man streaked through Clearwater Beach, assaulted people, pushed his way into hotel rooms and fought would-be captors. Cops say the man, Anthony M. Childs, 25, also hijacked a garbage truck and tried to steal a semitrailer truck before he surrendered.
Several people suffered minor cuts and bruises in struggles with Childs but no one was seriously injured. Childs was finally arrested when he was surrounded by police and motel employees in front of the Clearwater Beach Hilton. Childs, of Clearwater, was charged with carjacking, attempted carjacking, auto burglary, aggravated battery, battery and grand theft. He was held at Pinellas County Jail in lieu of $261,000 bail.
A relative said Childs had been having financial problems and was fired Monday from his job in the shipping department at a Largo medical supply business. "He just needs some help," the relative said. "He's really not like this." Clearwater Officer Michael Duffey, who arrested Childs, said: "He didn't say much at all. We have no idea why he did what he did. I've never seen anything like this."
The first hint of trouble was an 8 a.m. report that a city garbage truck was hijacked by a naked man who had, minutes earlier, jumped into the open back of the truck and laid in the refuse. The man, later identified as Childs, then pulled the driver out of the truck in the 600 block of Cyprus Avenue and drove away, Duffey said. The city's truck driver suffered a head injury.
The truck headed south to Bay Esplanade, turned onto Mandalay Avenue, went to Baymont Street and then to N Gulfview Boulevard, where it was abandoned. After making his way to the Clearwater Beach Hilton the naked man knocked on the door to Room 505 and announced that he was from room service. Officer Duffey said the man pushed his way into the room and struggled briefly with a guest before being pushed back out of the room.
Childs also struggled with a guest in Room 508 before hotel employees and security guards confronted him. Childs darted down the stairs after slugging a security guard. He ran into the hotel parking lot. A semitrailer truck from Alliant Foods was making a delivery at the hotel. Childs climbed into the truck's cab, Duffey said, but could not start the engine. The truck's driver and hotel employees forced him to get out of the truck.
Childs then ran to a pickup pulling into the parking lot and jumped into the truck's bed. Charles Cassini, the truck's driver and the hotel's chief engineer, slammed on the brakes. Childs then ran out to Mandalay, where hotel maintenance employee Dan Rupert spoke to him.
"He told him that the police were coming, and that they had guns," Duffey said. "He told him to stop. He just stopped dead right there and waited for us."
