A Florida dog breeder discovered how to get a sheriff’s attention while being kidnapped at gunpoint by men bent on stealing his puppies. (Photo: boytaro Thongbun/500px via Getty Images)
A Florida man saved himself from a terrifying situation with some quick thinking and some extra pressure on the accelerator.
The man, whose name has not been released, was described in a statement from the Martin County Sheriff’s Office as a Port St. Lucie dog breeder who had “bragged” online about having a lot of cash on hand. The internet bragging rights caught the attention of three men in their 20s who “impersonated interested dog buyers” and then came to the man’s home to rob, assault and eventually kidnap him, the sheriff’s office said. .
The trio broke into the victim’s home on June 16, “searched the residence” for money before demanding more information about the lucrative puppies the man bred, according to a Port St. Lucie police report obtained by The Washington Post.
When the breeder said the puppies were not on the property but at his aunt’s home in Fort Lauderdale, the three men forced him to drive there at gunpoint, the report said.
Along the way, the dog breeder devised an escape plan. He started driving 15 miles above the speed limit, hoping to be stopped on an overpass he knew police usually patrolled.
After the man was apprehended, Martin County Deputy Sheriff Cameron White noticed that something was not right. First of all, the driver had an apparent “appearance of despair,” according to the sheriff’s statement. He also found it odd that the driver seemed reluctant to get back into the car after White let him leave with a warning and was told twice that he was free to go.
“But as he walked away and he put his hands behind his back and made a gesture like he was pointing a gun down, and that made the hair on the back of my neck stand up,” White told local news channel WPTV.
At that point, White told him to get out of the car and called for backup.
“We’re like, ‘Hey, what was that about?'” White said. “He said, ‘These guys in the car are holding me hostage. There are guns in the car and I need help.’”
The three men were arrested on a slew of charges, including kidnapping, assault and burglary.
This article originally appeared on HuffPost and has been updated.
