Police: Trio Targets Victims Through Dating App 'Grindr'
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BOYNTON BEACH (CBSMiami) -- Authorities have arrested two people and are looking for a third for an armed robbery of a man targeted through the dating app Grindr.
Vadol Reed, 22, and Edward James Hamilton, Jr., 20, both Boynton Beach residents, have been charged with Robbery with a Firearm and Kidnapping.
According to police, on March 31st, Reed began chatting with the victim on Grindr and invited him to his apartment to "watch a movie and hang out," located at 404 N.E. 10th Avenue, Apt. #1.
Once inside the bedroom, the victim said he first noticed the television's volume turned up very loudly. When Reed tried kissing the man, two masked men entered the room armed with weapons. One came out of the bedroom's closet, the other from the front door. One had a knife, the other had a metal pole.
Reed then pulled out a gun, an arrest report said, and demanded the victim's phone and debit card.
The three suspects then forced the victim into his own car at knife point, telling him if he screamed, they would kill him. They all drove to the guy's house and took more items, including the victim's dog. When they were finished, they forced the man to drive them back to the apartment building and threatened not to talk to police because "they know where he lives and they would return to kill him."
The victim waited a few days to contact police out of fear but in the mean time, he posted a warning to members of an LGBT group on Facebook. Another man reached out to him claiming those guys did the same thing to him. That victim, however, did not go to police out of fear that they'd follow through on their death threat.
Reed and Hamilton were taken to Palm Beach County Jail.
The dog was reunited with its owner shortly after.
Investigators believe all three men are responsible for at least two other robberies of men they met on Grindr.
