Kidnapping victim held at gunpoint drives erratically to alert police
‘Brazen kidnapping’ foiled after victim used hand signals to indicate to deputy he was in danger
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A Florida dog breeder who was allegedly kidnapped after boasting about his wealth drove erratically on purpose to attract the attention of law enforcement and used hand signals to indicate he was in danger, authorities say.
Martin County Sheriff’s Office said three men posing as dog collectors showed up at the victim’s home in Port St Lucie last week, where they assaulted him and demanded he hand over large amounts of cash he had bragged about in social media posts.
Over the next two days he was forced to drive to different locations, the sheriff’s office said in a Facebook post.
Arrest reports stated the men forced the breeder at gun point to drive to Fort Lauderdale to pick up puppies.
As he was driving through Martin County the driver spotted a sheriff’s deputy and deliberately broke the speed limit to attract their attention.
The victim was afraid to report the kidnapping to the responding deputy, and used a hand motion to gesture to the deputy that he was in danger.
The officer picked up on the signal, and ordered the men to get out of the car.
“Deputies searched the vehicle and found guns, knives and large amounts of cash,” Martin County Sheriff’s Office wrote.
Tsdekiel Sellers, 22, of Atlanta, Benyahveen Radcliffe, 25, of Buffalo, and 22-year old Kashaveeyah Bragdon of Tallahassee were arrested on charges including kidnapping, carjacking, armed burglary and home invasion.
“Once hearing the victim’s story, the three suspects were placed into custody and the Port St. Lucie Police Department was called in,” Martin County Sheriff’s wrote on Facebook.
“Detectives there were able to verify his accounts and confirm that this was in fact a brazen kidnapping.”
The three men are being held in the Martin County Jail.