Homeless man arrested for pulling knife on restaurant employee after walking out on $128 bill
Staff report
GAINESVILLE, Fla. – Jordan Caleb Pittman, 22, was arrested early this morning and charged with armed robbery after allegedly pulling a knife on a restaurant employee who tried to stop him from walking out on an unpaid $128 bill.
At about 10:30 p.m. on January 19, Pittman reportedly finished his meal at Mr. and Mrs. Crab in Butler Plaza and attempted to pay the $128.75 bill with a debit card. When the debit card was declined, Pittman allegedly left the card at the restaurant and walked out; when an employee tried to stop him, Pittman allegedly pulled a large fixed-blade knife from his pocket and said, “If you get any closer, I’ll stab [you].” The victim said he believed Pittman would stab him and stopped trying to collect the payment.
The victim gave the debit card, which had Pittman’s name on it, to the responding Gainesville Police Department officer, and another employee provided a description of Pittman’s neck tattoo.
The investigation led to the identification of Pittman as the person who owned the debit card and allegedly pulled the knife on the victim, and Pittman was arrested early this morning.
Post Miranda, Pittman reportedly admitted that he ate at Mr. and Mrs. Crab and refused to pay his bill. He said he remembered the manager following him when he left the business. A search incident to arrest reportedly produced a large knife.
Pittman is also facing a sworn complaint for petit theft after allegedly placing $98.16 in items in his backpack at the Butler Plaza Walmart and walking out of the store without paying for them.
Pittman, whose address is listed as GRACE Marketplace, has been in the area for about three months. He has a juvenile criminal history between 2011 and 2020, one adult felony conviction (non-violent), and three misdemeanor convictions (none violent). He has served one state prison sentence for burglary out of Bradford County and was released in April 2023. Judge Thomas Jaworski set bail at $50,000.
Articles about arrests are based on reports from law enforcement agencies. The charges listed are taken from the arrest report and/or court records and are only accusations. All suspects are innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.
Wow!!
$129 bill for one person?
He’ll never get asked out on a date.
That homeless man apparently has much more expensive taste than I do.
Go figure.
Expensive taste
Hey…. Yo…. Check this out.
Can y’all imagine if Marvel got involved with the homeless population in Gainesville?
They could make super heroes out of these men and women.
They could make up super heroes like “MethMan”, and “CrackHoe”.
Their cave could be a tent behind a dumpster.at Grace.
They’d have at least one employee at Grace named “Alfred”.
Just take a minute and think about the potential “Hollywood” scenes here.
This is a brilliant idea for the folks at Marvel.
I’m just wondering why some of the liberal lunatics didn’t offer to ante up for the bill.
They invited him, they’re offering free housing…why aren’t they paying for his food? Every business in Gainesville should have Poe or Ward’s phone number on speed dial, call them if there’s an issue – at any hour.
Democrats – they only think they’re smart.
Send the bill to the city council of Gainesville let them pay this bastards bill since they want them here
No, because that would come out of our pockets and our GRU bill would be e even worse!
“and another employee provided a description of Pittman’s neck tattoo. ” Perhaps fancy neck tattoos aren’t the smart way to go if you’re into a life of crime or drugs or lowlifery. The tattoos will make it harder to disappear into the crowd.
Thanks Mayor Poe you built it (GRACE) and they have come.
Go figure, another disgrace from Grace. They should have grabbed a knife from the kitchen and stuck it in the mouth of that neck tattoo.
Might not have gotten the money for the meal but if they could have added “some liver and fava beans with a nice Chianti” to the menu; they may have recouped some of their losses.
Wonder when people are going to get tired of the homeless and the crimes they’re committing? Better yet, when are they going to get tired of the leaders who’ve invited them?
That’s great. More garbage idiots like this swarming into Gainesville daily. If Sako gave them the finger would they leave? I doubt it.. Thanks Poe, Ward and co..your little Portland dream came true…
BRANDON’S PUPPY
You mean the orange one’s sheep
Maybe you make it all better and pay this misguided soul’s bill.
This brilliant high class thug
Needs some time in the can and also needs some hard labor.
Thug don’t wanna work just wanna steal go figure 👱🏻♂️👱🏻♂️
Another Dem city NGO circle jerk parasite, and advertises it on his neck. Might wanna switch to turtlenecks and move to a non-college town when released next time, genius 👹🤡🍦🍦🍦D
Darn, missed opportunity for a law abiding legally armed citizen to exterminate this “parasite”.
Sooooo same judge as the black dude with severe animal cruelty charges and his bond was less than $400.00.
This dude granted it’s still a crime. But a 50k bond? I think a switcheroo is needed. Something’s not adding up
Another degenerate pig-person, like Poe.
This hick loser will be begging for postcards and unwanted food in
This hick loser will be begging for postcards and unwanted food during his stay in county jail.