Attempts to buy vehicles raise suspicions

After St. Petersburg College employees call the FBI, the buyers, described as Middle Eastern, vanish.

TARPON SPRINGS - Four men described as Middle Eastern tried to buy a surplus ambulance, two former police cruisers and an old truck from St. Petersburg College this summer, prompting college employees to alert authorities, SPC administrators said Thursday.

"The minute I heard about it I got in touch with our law enforcement people and asked them to make immediate (contact) with the FBI," college president Dr. Carl Kuttler said.

In response, the FBI interviewed college employees, expressed an interest in the men and installed surveillance devices in the vehicles in advance of a scheduled pickup, SPC officials said.

But the buyers, who made at least two previous trips to the campus, never showed up for the third and final meeting.

FBI Tampa office spokeswoman Sara Oates said she couldn't confirm or deny the existence of an investigation. But college administrators said federal agents took the matter very seriously.

"The FBI agent did mention to our folks that she had suspicion of them having associates that had some al-Qaida contacts and that they were following a number of them and had some concerns about some possible suspicious behavior in the Daytona area around the time that they were pursuing these vehicles," said Susan Reiter, the college's director of facilities planning and institutional services.

"The FBI also indicated that they were interested in seeing exactly what these guys were going to do with these vehicles, where they were going and what they were going to do with them," said Reiter, whose staff ran the surplus property auction and dealt with the FBI.

The college has the vehicles because its Southeastern Public Safety Institute teaches programs in criminal justice, fire science and emergency management. At the time of auction, they were stored in a warehouse on the college's Tarpon Springs campus.

A bidder who wrote the name Abdalla Deiab of Clearwater on bid documents submitted the winning bids for all four vehicles, according to SPC records.

Efforts to reach Deiab Thursday night were not successful.

Deiab and his wife lived in a condominium on Shelley Street just north of Gulf-to-Bay Boulevard for 10 or 11 months and moved out almost a year ago, said Panagiotis Thomaidis, who owns the condo unit. The couple was very clean, and always paid their $465 monthly rent, Thomaidis said.

When the FBI called him about a month ago, Thomaidis told him the couple had moved to another apartment in Clearwater. Deiab said he was Egyptian, Thomaidis said. He owned a big truck, which he used in a moving business.

College officials said no one can remember whether any of the men came to an event where buyers can look at surplus property before bidding.

The winning bids were submitted on Aug. 4, according to college records. At the time, college officials had seen media reports about suspicions that terrorists might try to acquire ambulances or other emergency vehicles.

Once the winning bid was opened, a college staff member raised concerns to supervisors who contacted law enforcement.

"When they won the bid, the light just went on," Reiter said. "Maybe there is a connection between what we've seen in the media, what these folks look like and what they were bidding on."

College officials could not provide a description of the men other than they were about 40 and appeared to be Middle Eastern.

Deiab submitted a high bid of $951 for the unmarked 1982 Chevrolet ambulance, which had been used by college electricians before it was declared surplus, according to college records.

Deiab also bid $951 for a large 1981 Ford truck, $276 for a 1990 Chevrolet Caprice and $751 for a 1991 Chevrolet Caprice that was equipped as a pursuit vehicle.

College officials contacted the Pinellas County Sheriff's Office and heard back the same day from the FBI, said J.C. Brock, the director of the Southeastern Public Safety Institute at SPC.

After Deiab was declared the winning bidder, four men came to the warehouse twice to inspect and take photos of the vehicles, Reiter said. One told college employees that he was a vehicle dealer.

Meanwhile, the FBI "became very interested in this whole process," Reiter said. "They came on our site and worked with us and put some surveillance apparatus in the vehicles."

Reiter said she thought the devices would enable agents to track the vehicles. A final appointment was scheduled for the buyers but they never showed.

Kuttler praised the college employee who first raised the concern as being "very alert" and a "hero" who "served her community well." Her name was not released.

"It's a little scary," Kuttler said. "The thing that got to me and gave me chills was the fact that when I knew about this I would be going home at night and seeing across the bottom of the (television) screen that this was national phenomenon."

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