{"id":155556,"date":"2026-02-14T14:51:09","date_gmt":"2026-02-14T14:51:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/155556\/"},"modified":"2026-02-14T14:51:09","modified_gmt":"2026-02-14T14:51:09","slug":"driver-involved-in-hillsborough-crash-accused-of-stealing-gold-chain-from-victim-threatening-with-bat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/155556\/","title":{"rendered":"Driver involved in Hillsborough crash accused of stealing gold chain from victim, threatening with bat"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/crash-robbery-arrest-2.jpg\" alt=\"\" data-v-7d0efd03=\"\"\/> article <\/p>\n<p data-v-7d0efd03=\"\">Pictured: Jorge Rodriguez Leon. Courtesy: Hillsborough County Sheriff&#8217;s Office.\u00a0 <\/p>\n<p data-v-2899190a=\"\">TAMPA, Fla. &#8211; A driver involved in a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fox13news.com\/tag\/us\/fl\/hillsborough\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Hillsborough County<\/a> crash on Thursday was arrested for robbing the other driver, stealing a gold chain worth around $2,000, deputies said.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p data-v-2899190a=\"\">The Hillsborough County Sheriff&#8217;s Office said Jorge Rodriguez Leon, 45, was arrested on an <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fox13news.com\/tag\/crime-publicsafety\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">armed robbery<\/a> charge.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p data-v-2899190a=\"\">READ: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fox13news.com\/news\/st-pete-man-arrested-pinellas-park-stabbing-victim-hospitalized-officers\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">St. Pete man arrested in Pinellas Park stabbing, victim hospitalized: Officers<\/a><\/p>\n<p original-article-post=\"\" origination_station=\"WTVT\" data-v-ec26887a=\"\" data-v-2899190a=\"\">What we know:<\/p>\n<p data-v-2899190a=\"\">Investigators said the crash happened near West Hamilton Avenue and North Manhattan Avenue in Hillsborough County on Thursday. The two drivers involved exchanged information, but that&#8217;s when deputies said things escalated.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p> <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/crash-robbery-arrest-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" data-v-0dea8073=\"\"\/> <\/p>\n<p data-v-0dea8073=\"\">Courtesy: Hillsborough County Sheriff&#8217;s Office.\u00a0 <\/p>\n<p data-v-2899190a=\"\">Rodriguez Leon is accused of grabbing a bat from his vehicle, threatening the victim and demanding $300 for vehicle damage. However, HCSO said the victim didn&#8217;t have cash, which is when Rodriguez Leon raised the bat again and demanded the gold chain from the victim&#8217;s neck \u2014 worth around $2,000.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p original-article-post=\"\" origination_station=\"WTVT\" data-v-ec26887a=\"\" data-v-2899190a=\"\">Dig deeper:<\/p>\n<p data-v-2899190a=\"\">After stealing the chain, Rodriguez Leon texted the victim his address and demanded cash to get it back, according to officials. When the victim showed up with the money, the demand increased from $300 to $500, according to authorities.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p data-v-2899190a=\"\">The victim called the sheriff&#8217;s office and deputies got a warrant to arrest Rodriguez Leon.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"group-source-paragraph\" data-v-4fbf7207=\"\">The Source: The information in this story was released by the Hillsborough County Sheriff&#8217;s Office.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>    <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fox13news.com\/tag\/us\/fl\/hillsborough\" class=\"tags-tag\" data-v-2899190a=\"\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Hillsborough County<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/www.fox13news.com\/tag\/crime-publicsafety\" class=\"tags-tag\" data-v-2899190a=\"\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Crime and Public Safety<\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"article Pictured: Jorge Rodriguez Leon. Courtesy: Hillsborough County Sheriff&#8217;s Office.\u00a0 TAMPA, Fla. &#8211; A driver involved in a&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":155557,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[630,47,629,115,135,137,136,628],"class_list":["post-155556","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tampa","tag-crime-publicsafety","tag-fl","tag-hillsborough","tag-news","tag-tampa","tag-tampa-headlines","tag-tampa-news","tag-us"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/155556","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=155556"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/155556\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/155557"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=155556"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=155556"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=155556"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}