{"id":324806,"date":"2026-06-30T16:20:15","date_gmt":"2026-06-30T16:20:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/324806\/"},"modified":"2026-06-30T16:20:15","modified_gmt":"2026-06-30T16:20:15","slug":"hillsborough-county-man-accused-of-attacking-store-owner-during-50k-jewelry-robbery-at-university-square-mall","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/324806\/","title":{"rendered":"Hillsborough County man accused of attacking store owner during $50K jewelry robbery at University Square Mall"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/booth-fi-6.30.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"764\" height=\"432\" loading=\"eager\" fetchpriority=\"high\" data-v-653d32e2=\"\"\/> article <\/p>\n<p data-v-653d32e2=\"\">Courtesy: Hillsborough County Sheriff&#8217;s Office <\/p>\n<p data-v-94395e58=\"\">ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. &#8211; A 28-year-old man was arrested after <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fox13news.com\/tag\/us\/fl\/hillsborough\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Hillsborough County<\/a> deputies say he posed as a customer before attacking a jewelry store owner during a robbery at University Square Mall, where he stole approximately $50,000 worth of merchandise.<\/p>\n<p>   Tampa mall robbery <\/p>\n<p original-article-post=\"\" origination_station=\"WTVT\" data-v-ec26887a=\"\" data-v-94395e58=\"\">What we know:<\/p>\n<p data-v-94395e58=\"\">The Hillsborough County Sheriff\u2019s Office said detectives arrested Mahlique Booth on Friday, following a robbery investigation and pursuit into St. Petersburg.<\/p>\n<p> <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/booth-mug-6.30.jpg\" alt=\"\" loading=\"lazy\" fetchpriority=\"auto\" width=\"932\" height=\"524\" data-v-2fe2fe3e=\"\"\/> <\/p>\n<p data-v-2fe2fe3e=\"\">Courtesy: Hillsborough County Sheriff&#8217;s Office <\/p>\n<p data-v-94395e58=\"\">According to HCSO, Booth entered a jewelry store at Tampa&#8217;s University Square Mall and acted like a customer before trying to steal a necklace.<\/p>\n<p data-v-94395e58=\"\">Investigators said the store owner confronted Booth, leading to a fight.<\/p>\n<p data-v-94395e58=\"\">During the altercation, Booth allegedly assaulted the store owner, shattered a jewelry display case and took approximately $50,000 worth of jewelry.<\/p>\n<p> St. Pete suspect pursuit <\/p>\n<p original-article-post=\"\" origination_station=\"WTVT\" data-v-ec26887a=\"\" data-v-94395e58=\"\">Dig deeper:<\/p>\n<p data-v-94395e58=\"\">Investigators said the HCSO Aviation Unit was able to track Booth\u2019s vehicle after the robbery.<\/p>\n<p> <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/b-pic-2-6.30.jpg\" alt=\"\" loading=\"lazy\" fetchpriority=\"auto\" width=\"932\" height=\"524\" data-v-2fe2fe3e=\"\"\/> <\/p>\n<p data-v-2fe2fe3e=\"\">Courtesy: Hillsborough County Sheriff&#8217;s Office <\/p>\n<p data-v-94395e58=\"\">The vehicle was followed into St. Pete, where deputies arrested Booth.<\/p>\n<p original-article-post=\"\" origination_station=\"WTVT\" data-v-ec26887a=\"\" data-v-94395e58=\"\">What&#8217;s next:<\/p>\n<p data-v-94395e58=\"\">Booth is facing charges of robbery and criminal mischief, according to HCSO.<\/p>\n<p class=\"group-source-paragraph\" data-v-4fbf7207=\"\">The Source: Information for this story was provided by the Hillsborough County Sheriff&#8217;s Office.<\/p>\n<p>    <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fox13news.com\/tag\/us\/fl\/pinellas\/st-petersburg\" class=\"tags-tag\" data-v-94395e58=\"\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">St. Petersburg<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/www.fox13news.com\/tag\/us\/fl\/hillsborough\" class=\"tags-tag\" data-v-94395e58=\"\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Hillsborough County<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/www.fox13news.com\/tag\/crime-publicsafety\" class=\"tags-tag\" data-v-94395e58=\"\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Crime and Public Safety<\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"article Courtesy: Hillsborough County Sheriff&#8217;s Office ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. &#8211; A 28-year-old man was arrested after Hillsborough County&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":324807,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[630,47,629,115,1157,202,204,203,199,201,200,628],"class_list":["post-324806","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-st-petersburg","tag-crime-publicsafety","tag-fl","tag-hillsborough","tag-news","tag-pinellas","tag-st-pete","tag-st-pete-headlines","tag-st-pete-news","tag-st-petersburg","tag-st-petersburg-headlines","tag-st-petersburg-news","tag-us"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/324806","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=324806"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/324806\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/324807"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=324806"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=324806"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=324806"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}