Halloween may still be over a month away, but the Citrus County Sheriff’s Office in Florida is currently searching for a robbery suspect who wore a Michael Myers mask while holding up a liquor store.
According to the sheriff’s office, the individual wearing a Michael Myers mask robbed Citrus Liquor at 712 Highway 41 South in Inverness and escaped on foot, prompting an extensive manhunt by deputies. Deputies said that the armed robbery suspect was “going west toward the Highlands.”
The suspect was identified by the authorities as a white man in his mid-30s. He was wearing a Michael Myers mask, a crossbody bag, black jogger trousers, black shoes with white soles, and a black hoodie.
The sheriff’s office has not made public details of what was taken during the robbery or whether anyone was hurt.
Criminals have used Michael Myers masks in other robberies
Last year, three men from the Bay Area in California were accused of robbing a Florida electronics store during the day while donning Halloween masks and carrying what looked to be guns.
According to the San Francisco Chronicle, the three men visited a business in a white GMC van while donning gloves and Michael Myers’ masks. After arriving, they zip-tied six employees and coerced an employee inside at gunpoint using what turned out to be BB guns.
In 2024, WOWT News reported that two men were charged in Omaha, Nebraska, for a series of robberies involving Michael Myers masks.
“In each incident the victims reported the suspect driving a gray or silver sedan. The suspect was described as wearing a ‘Michael Myers’ mask and assaulting the victims with a hammer before taking property from them,” according to an Omaha Police Department report.
How was the Michael Myers mask created?
The character Michael Myers appears in the Halloween film franchise. In John Carpenter’s 1978 film Halloween, Myers first appears as a little child who kills Judith Myers, his older sister. After returning home fifteen years later, he kills more teenagers in Haddonfield, Illinois.
The mask was actually a William Shatner Halloween mask bought by the production designer/co-editor on Halloween. He cut the eyeholes larger and rounder, removed the eyebrows and sideburns, messed up the hair, and spray-painted the mask white.