A Facebook Marketplace sale in Winter Springs led to the arrest of three individuals after they allegedly stole a man’s PlayStation 5 console, pepper-sprayed him, and dragged him with their car.
The incident occurred on Tuesday, February 17, when three individuals – later identified by police as Christopher Stephan Lewis, Maud Chelle Jean Baptiste, and Natalya Joi Hayles – traveled to Winter Springs to purchase a PS5 from a seller on Facebook Marketplace, according to the Winter Springs Police Department.
In a media release, WSPD stated that when the trio met with the seller, they “decided not to pay the victim and attempted to flee” with his video game console.
In an attempt to retrieve his PS5, the victim reached into the suspects’ car as they began speeding away from the incident location. While holding onto the car, the victim was allegedly pepper-sprayed by the suspects, and he was dragged “several hundred feet” before falling from the vehicle.
The victim sustained minor injuries during the incident.
WSPD said that investigators were able to track the suspects’ car to Apopka. During an interior search of the vehicle, law enforcement allegedly found “a can of pepper spray and the stolen PS5.”
Lewis and Baptiste were both arrested and charged with robbery. Hayles was also taken into custody and charged as an accessory after the fact.
“This is a reminder: If you are buying or selling items on internet exchange sites such as Facebook Marketplace, the Winter Springs Police Department has an ‘Internet Purchase Exchange’ area in our PD parking lot located at 300 N. Moss Road, where you can meet in a safe and monitored environment,” said WSPD in the media release. “If the person, you’re dealing with is not comfortable meeting at a police station, you may want to reconsider doing business with them.”