Photos: Getty Images / HCSO
LUTZ, Fla. – A burglary alarm apparently disappeared following the attempt of a social media stalker who had been planning for months to abduct a WWE wrestler from her home in Lutz, according to information from deputies and property records.
It was just before 3 a.m. Sunday when the suspect – identified as Phillip A. Thomas II of South Carolina – broke into a house along Pine Hammock Boulevard on the Promenade near Lake Park, a Sheriff’s Office spokesman said. Sheriff’s Office.
The alarm of the house was triggered when Thomas opened the sliding glass door, woke the two people. When they saw the burglar, they fled and called 911.
When deputies arrived, they said Thomas was still inside the house – armed with a knife, plastic zip ties, duct tape, and Mace.
“It’s horrible to think of all the ways this incident could have played out if the home alarm had not gone off and alerted the homeowner of a burglar,” Sheriff Chad Chronister said.
According to the sheriff’s office, Thomas came to Lutz from South Carolina, specifically targeting the homeowner. They say Thomas had parked his car earlier that night at the nearby Idlewild Baptist Church and walked to the house, then cut a hole in the patio screen and waited there for three to four hours, looking through the window and listening to his goal went to bed.
After his arrest, the 24-year-old suspect told deputies he was planning to take the homeowner hostage – a crime he had been planning for more than eight months.
“Our deputies are discovering the suspect’s disturbing obsession with this homeowner, whom he has never met but stalked on social media for years,” Chronister continued.
Deputies did not identify the victim, but publicly available arrest documents and property records show the house is owned by Daria Berenato, who is wrestling with the WWE under the stage name Sonya Deville.
Thomas was charged with aggravated stalking, armed burglary, attempted armed abduction, and criminal misdemeanor.
