Arrest Made In Coral Springs Crooked Casanova Case
CORAL SPRINGS (CBSMiami) – Coral Springs Police say they have arrested the Casanova accused of wooing a teenage girl and taking her on a date while his friend robbed her home.
Anthony Maldonado, 18, is charged with grand theft and burglary.
Police say Maldonado preyed on a young girl's romantic dreams in an elaborate scheme to steal from her and her family.
According to an arrest report released Thursday, Maldonado met the teenage victim on a dating website last month. Police say Maldonado used a phony name -- Florenciano Valentino -- and claimed to be from Italy.
Investigators say Maldonado went to the victim's home and spent several hours there one day last month and the pair agreed to meet for a date at another time.
On the day of the date, surveillance video shows Maldonado getting out of the passenger side of a car at the victim's home. He runs up to the front door and around the side of the house.
According to police, Maldonado knew the victim had already left for their date and the victim's mother was out of town.
Detectives say that after Maldonado and the victim left the home, the accomplice returned, pulled a car into the driveway and stole more than $7-thousand dollars in electronics.
The arrest report indicates that police believe Maldonado may have unlocked a bedroom window in the home before he and the victim left for their date.
Plus, police say that during the date Maldonado kept borrowing the victim's phone to check in on the accomplice and eventually left the girl at the restaurant, stealing her phone.
"This individual had a plan from the time he probably met her," Coral Springs Police Lt. Joe McHugh said earlier this month. "He didn't probably have no feelings for her at any point. He just wanted to burglarize her residence."
No one answered the door at Maldonado's Miami Gardens home Thursday evening.
Detectives are still trying to identify Maldanado's accomplice and anyone with information is urged to call Detective Anthony Cassini at 954-346-1251.
