A drive home turned into a frightening ordeal for a South Florida woman who stopped to help a man after a crash, only to have him take her car. The incident unfolded in Deerfield Beach, where a man first slammed a vehicle into an office building and then turned on a passerby who had pulled over out of concern. By the end of the night, deputies had taken the man into custody.
The crash left clear marks on the building along East Hillsboro Boulevard. A column that once stood in the middle of the structure ended up on the floor, and the scene was littered with multiple downed trees and debris scattered everywhere, including pieces of the car itself. The damage offered a stark picture of the force of the impact.
Cheyanne Figuero was driving along East Hillsboro Boulevard near Northeast Fifth Avenue when, she said, a black SUV sped up behind her car. The vehicle swerved around her before losing control and crashing into the office building, an alarming sequence that played out directly in front of her on the road.
Believing she might have been involved, Figuero said she called 911 immediately and got out of her car. She checked to see whether she had hit anything or struck any debris, which she said she had not, and stayed on the phone with the dispatcher as the situation continued to develop around her.
It was then that the man got out from the back seat of the wrecked vehicle. Figuero said she heard him say that he needed a car. He made his way to her driver's side, and as he did she opened her passenger's side and grabbed her purse, at which point, she said, he told her to get away from the vehicle in harsh terms.
According to the Broward Sheriff's Office, the man then sped off in the stolen car before abandoning it at a Chick-fil-A on North Federal Highway. Deputies found him inside the gas station next door. The sheriff's office said the man fought with deputies during the encounter, but he was ultimately apprehended and taken to a nearby hospital.
For the woman whose car was taken, the experience did not change how she views helping others. Figuero said she would not change her mind about stopping to assist someone in trouble and that she would do it again, even after the way the night turned out for her on a Deerfield Beach roadway.