Collier County deputies have arrested five teens they say kidnapped a 16-year-old over $160.
Arrested are two adults: Luigi Roca and Anthony Zangrilli, both 18 and three minors: Carlos Rodriguez, 16, and 15-year-old twin brothers Yankiel and Yoni Borden.
Roca and Zangrilli both had first appearance court on Friday. Bail was set at $500,000 each.
According to the Collier County Sheriff’s Office, the victim was walking near his residence in East Naples when a red 4-door vehicle approached him.
The victim said Roca, Rodriguez and the Bordens got out of the vehicle and dragged him inside the car and put a pillowcase over his head. This happened just after 1:30 p.m., in broad daylight.
The teen was taken to Zangrilli’s apartment at Ibis Club. That’s where the group demanded that the teen pay $160.
The suspects beat the victim and told him he owed them money and used his cell phone to try to get money from his family. The report shows the teens texted the victim’s mother asking for the money, and she denied his request, unaware of the circumstances.
The victim said Roca, Zangrilli and Yankiel Borden pointed a gun and laser at the apartment. Zangrilli pointed a gun at him and threatened to kill him, deputies said.
The victim was given a green shirt or cloth to wipe blood off his face from the beating.
When it appeared the victim wasn’t going to pay up, the suspects drove him back to the intersection where they kidnapped him and threatened to kill his family if he called law enforcement.
The victim’s dad spoke to WINK News and said his son was doing OK.
WINK News safety and security specialist Rich Kolko said these crimes are rare so it appears they planned the assault.
“Certainly not enough to get away with it, but they planned where they would take him, how would they grab him, how they would move him,” Kolko said.
Deputies arrested Roca and Rodriguez during a traffic stop. Deputies also took the Borden brothers into custody. A review of Yoni Borden’s court-ordered ankle monitor showed he was in the area where the victim was kidnapped and at the apartment where he was taken.
At the apartment, detectives found the bloody green shirt, a blood-stained pillowcase and box of .380-caliber ammunition and a 40-caliber magazine for a Glock 27.
Dr. David Thomas is a former police officer and counselor. He believes the teens thought they’d scare the victim out of reporting. “I think the suspects are thinking that they’re so intimidating, they’re literally are going to scare the victim into not… not reporting it to the police,” said Thomas.
Well, that didn’t work. Thomas says it didn’t work because the victim trusts, he has a support system. “He trusts his mom enough to be able to have that discussion and open up and sit down and talk to her about it,” Thomas said.
And the victim’s mom was the one who made the call to 911. “OK, tell me exactly what happened,” you can hear in the 911 call. “My son was kidnapped and beat.”
When asked if money truly was the driving force, in this case, Thomas had this to say, “the money sometimes becomes the driving force. But when you look at kids, and you look at young men, um, the reputation becomes probably more important than anything else.”
According to Thomas, now the most important thing for the victim is to learn to cope with his trauma.
“If he’s got good coping mechanisms, good, solid coping mechanisms where he works out, he has excellent friends, and he can share stuff with, and have those types of conversations with them to kind of diffused that and didn’t you know, keep his life intact?” said Thomas. “I think that he’ll… he’ll do OK.”
Other charges are pending as detectives said they are looking at the suspects in connection with other crimes.