South Tampa armed robbery victim speaks out

TAMPA (FOX 13) - A South Tampa man says he was just trying to be nice when four men parked behind his home - but it turned out they were looking for a victim.

"He had his gun and said get in the garage, get inside," said Harrell Warren. "They made me get on the floor and I laid there on the rug."

Two of the four ran through the home, grabbing Warren's phone, laptop, keys, wallet and gun.

"You comply because you don't want to get shot," Warren said, recounting the frightening experience.

On their way out, the robbers sent a message.

"They shot into a sofa table, the top of a sofa table, shot through the bottom of my mother-in-law's picture, the frame, shattered all the glass," he said. "To warn me to be still."

Warren told police the other two men waited in the lurking car. 

He believes he was randomly targeted. 

"They were just sitting here waiting for someone to be vulnerable," said Warren. "I was vulnerable."

That point has neighbors petrified to the point where some won't even show their faces.

"I heard them yelling go go go get out of here," said one neighbor. "You don't feel safe, now you make sure everything is locked and all your garage doors are shut now."

Another sums it up this way: "Knowing that this can happen to anyone at any given time is pretty scary."

Ironically, it is Warren himself who never lost faith he'd live through the encounter.

"I will be more careful," he said. "But I am not going to run and hide."

Police say the suspects' silver car may be a Honda with unusual damage to the rear bumper and a partial plate of "343." Anyone who recognizes that vehicle description is asked to call Tampa Police.