Police: Man Confesses to Credit Union Robbery

Sarasota Police say the man who robbed the GTE Federal Credit Union on Valentine's Day confessed to the robbery saying his drug addiction forced him to do it.

The credit union on 3510 Fruitville Road was robbed at 12:30 p.m. on Tuesday when a man presented a note to a teller and fled with an undisclosed amount of cash, police say.

That man, police say, is Daniel Pezanetti, 45, and was arrested Wednesday night at a North Port home where he was charged with robbery and violation of probation.

Detective Anthony DeFrancisco obtained an arrest warrant for the robbery, while Detective Sergeant Kevin Churchill and DeFrancisco developed information that the suspect was in North Port.

North Port police and detectives, assisted the investigation,and the arrest, as well as recovered the evidence and cash from the robbery, Sarasota police say. 

Pezanetti was interviewed in North Port by DeFrancisco and confessed and added that his abuse of narcotics led him to commit the robbery, police say. 

The Sarasota Police Department say they are grateful to the media for publishing photographs of the perpetrator, which generated information that led to identifying the man as Pezanetti.