Deputies: Robber borrowed $3, returned it

CLAY COUNTY, Fla. – Apparently the adage "no good deed goes unpunished" is not always true.

According to Clay County deputies, 43-year-old Brian Jeffers robbed Larry's Giant Subs at Blanding Boulevard and Knight Boxx Road about 8:20 p.m. Saturday.

About 4 a.m. Sunday, a Clay County Sheriff's Office supervisor stopped at Flash Foods at 4000 Everett Ave. in Middleburg, and the clerk explained to him that she'd done her "good deed for the day" 30 minutes earlier by letting a man in an old truck borrow $3 for gas.

"During this time of year it is difficult, people do crazy things, people do things they wouldn't do normally," said Clay County Sheriff's Office, Capt Barry Ambarowitz.

The clerk said the man even left his wallet with her to prove he would come back. She then saw him go the opposite way from where he said he lived on Blanding, so she expected the $3 would never be seen again.

The man matched the description of the man who robbed the Larry's, deputies said.

Now with the man's ID in hand, deputies said they were looking for Jeffers and his truck when he was seen pulling back into the Flash Foods around 5:15 a.m. He was contacted by deputies as he was returning the $3 to the Good Samaritan and confessed to the robbery and was arrested, deputies said.

"Bottom line is the guy committed a robbery and he got caught and in Clay County you get caught for committing violent crimes," said Ambarowitz. "After this very, very short investigation again it's good police work and good cooperation, with the citizenry and the business people of Clay County."

"The suspect had the integrity to return the borrowed $3, but eight hours before was robbing a business," Sheriff's Office spokeswoman Mary Justino said in a news release. "Strange but true."