POLICE SAY CRACK USE IS BEHIND ROBBERIES

The Suspect, Who Is Alleged to Have Robbed Eight Banks,
Has Been Identified From Bank Surveillance Cameras.

Detectives say Roger R. Serio is on a crack cocaine binge and is
robbing banks to fund it.

Police suspect that he has held up eight banks in the last month, most
recently Wednesday morning at the Gulfport AmSouth, 5728 Gulfport
Blvd. Investigators suspect him of robbing banks in Largo, Palm
Harbor, New Port Richey, Lakeland and Sarasota.

Detectives say Serio, 32, has made no effort to disguise himself
during the holdups. Surveillance cameras have shot clear photos of
him. Witnesses also have jotted down the license plate number of the
car he is driving, which is registered to his mother.

"We're doing all the stuff that cops do to find him," said Cpl. Paul
Martin of the Pinellas sheriff's office's robbery unit. "What makes
him difficult is he's mobile and he's doing the crack thing. He's
smoking crack and staying in crack houses and crack holes."

Martin knows Serio because he arrested him in 1995 for robbing a
consignment shop on McMullen-Booth Road. Serio pleaded guilty to the
charge and was sentenced to two years of house arrest and one year of
probation.

He met the conditions of that probation and was released from it in
1998.

"The last time he was arrested in 1995 it was because of crack,"
Martin said. "People who know him say he's relapsed."

The series of robberies began Oct. 21 with the holdup of the South
Belcher Road SouthTrust Bank in Largo. The same man robbed a Roosevelt
Boulevard SunTrust Bank six days later, then returned and held up that
bank again Nov. 6. In between, he hit the bank in Lakeland.

The same man held up a Sarasota bank on Nov. 12, the Wachovia Bank at
State Road 54 and Madison in Pasco County on Nov. 18, and the Republic
Bank on U.S. 19 in Palm Harbor on Friday.

Four of his robberies have been in the morning, four in the
afternoon.

In each, he passed a note to a teller demanding cash. No tellers have
ever seen him show a gun, but he implies during each holdup that he
has one. He has reached for his waistband and threatened to kill
tellers, Martin said.

Serio came close to getting caught Wednesday. He robbed the Gulfport
bank just minutes after police detectives left the bank after using
the ATM. Police think Serio watched the detectives leave before
robbing the bank.

Investigators say Serio is driving a car registered to his mother, a
metallic blue, four-door Saturn Ion. The car's license plate number is
W48-UGI.

Detectives said Serio hasn't been to his mother's New Port Richey
address in at least two months.

Serio is 5-foot-8 and about 170 pounds. He has blue eyes and brown
hair that is short and straight.