Florida Shopper Narrowly Escapes Kidnapping by Knife-Wielding Sex Offender

A Flori­da wom­an’s rou­tine shop­ping trip took a ter­ri­fy­ing turn when she was near­ly kid­napped at knife­point in an Orlan­do Wal­mart park­ing lot. 

The inci­dent, which occurred on Mon­day around 4:30 p.m., high­lights the impor­tance of aware­ness and com­mu­ni­ty vig­i­lance in the face of such dan­ger­ous threats.

Shopper’s Harrowing Ordeal

Veron­i­ca Jones had just fin­ished shop­ping at the Wal­mart and was putting her gro­ceries into her trunk when she was sud­den­ly accost­ed by a sus­pect lat­er iden­ti­fied as 54-year-old Juan Perez. 

Perez, a reg­is­tered sex offend­er, alleged­ly grabbed Jones and demand­ed her purse and cash, all while wield­ing a knife and threat­en­ing to “slice [her] throat” if she did not comply.

Bystander’s Heroic Intervention

As Perez con­tin­ued to push Jones towards the trunk of her car, she went into “sur­vival mode” and began scream­ing for help. For­tu­nate­ly, a near­by bystander heard her cries and rushed to her aid, caus­ing the would-be kid­nap­per to flee with Jones’ purse, which con­tained her wal­let, dri­ver’s license, insur­ance card, phone, gift cards, $60 in cash, and a $125 check.

Arrest and Charges

Perez was arrest­ed the fol­low­ing day after a GPS mon­i­tor he was wear­ing from a past crime placed him at the scene of the attempt­ed kid­nap­ping and armed rob­bery. He was charged with a litany of offens­es, includ­ing attempt­ed kid­nap­ping, armed rob­bery with a dead­ly weapon, aggra­vat­ed bat­tery with a dead­ly weapon, bat­tery, and destruc­tion of evidence.

Registered Sex Offender

Perez’s crim­i­nal his­to­ry includes a pre­vi­ous kid­nap­ping charge, for which he was on fed­er­al pro­ba­tion at the time of the inci­dent. He is also a reg­is­tered sex offend­er in Flori­da, hav­ing been con­vict­ed of Lewd Or Las­civ­i­ous Bat­tery of a vic­tim between 12–15 years old in 2004.