Ethiopian Review

PORT ORANGE, Fla. — A Florida Highway Patrol trooper had stopped for a burger and ended up capturing two suspected serial robbers. Police say the two men held up a McDonald’s in Satellite Beach on Sunday and were about to do it again at a McDonald’s in Port Orange.

Late Wednesday night, the trooper pulled into a restaurant parking lot to get something to eat. The trooper said the parking lot was open and it seemed odd to him that there was a van parked by the trees.

“At 10, after 11:00pm, the trooper thought it was odd that the van was parked along the access road right along the woodline, not in a parking spot, with nobody in it,” Chief Wayne Miller of the Port Orange Police said.

The suspicious vehicle, described as a Dodge Durango was parked in the West Port Plaza on Taylor Road and Summer Trees Road (see map). The trooper ran the tag, which came back with a “Be on the lookout” for a vehicle wanted in connection with the armed robbery out of Satellite Beach.

Troopers arrested Philip Belancsik, 27, as he was sitting with a gun in an SUV. A witness told police they saw another man running through a nearby construction site.

Minutes later, sheriff deputies arriving at the scene on I-95 noticed someone walking along the freeway.

“Walking along the woodline. Walking northbound in the southbound lanes along the woodline,” said Miller.

Officers arrested Sadarion Drayton, 19, who joined his partner in a police car. Police say the pair admitted to planning the robbery in Port Orange, the robbery in Satellite Beach and a home burglary. They tried to ditch the shotgun, but investigators found it in the woods.

Security cameras at a Satellite Beach McDonald’s caught video Sunday of the two men putting on masks outside. They walked into the back entrance of the store, where they held a manager at gunpoint. The video shows that they stood at the store safe for three minutes until the manager had taken out every last dollar bill.

Now investigators are wondering what else they could be tied to. Daytona Beach is looking for masked men with shotguns who robbed a 7-Eleven and beat a convenience store clerk last week. They have had four shotgun incidents in the last month and investigators told Eyewitness News they planned to talk to the pair to determine if the men are responsible for even more violent robberies across the county.

Belancsik and Drayton were charged with armed robbery, grand theft, possession of a fire arm, aggravated assault and dealing in stolen property. The suspects are being held without bond at the Volusia County jail.

- wftv