A Florida woman posed as a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent and briefly kidnapped her ex-boyfriend’s wife from her job, authorities said.
Wearing a black shirt with ICE printed on the front, Latrance Battle, 52, went to the woman’s workplace at a hotel chain on April 10 wearing a black shirt with ICE printed on the front, according to the Bay County Sheriff’s Office.
Battle, who had a hand-held radio with her, flashed a sheriff’s office business card and told the woman she had to leave with her, the BCSO said.
Fox News Digital has reached out to the sheriff’s office.
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“Due to being in fear, the victim got in the vehicle and went willingly with Latrance,” a sheriff’s office statement said. “The victim confirmed that she genuinely felt as if Latrance was an ICE agent at the time and she is in the process of becoming a legal United States resident.”
As Battle drove, she spoke into her hand-held radio, which furthered the victim’s belief that she was being taken by an ICE agent, the kidnapped woman told authorities, according to the Miami Herald.
During the ride, the woman tried calling her husband and her lawyer before Battle “forcefully snatched” the phone from her hand, deputies wrote.
The woman became suspicious when they arrived at the Bridge Plaza apartment complex where Battle said additional ICE agents would be present, the newspaper reported.
“The victim suspected something was wrong because Latrance told the victim they were going to the Sheriff’s Office,” the sheriff’s office said. “As Latrance went inside the apartment, the victim fled and called law enforcement.”
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The woman told deputies that she hid behind a neighbor’s car. When Battle came out of her apartment, she saw the neighbor and asked him if he had seen a woman running, the neighbor told deputies.
Battle told the neighbor she took the woman’s phone because “she knows what she did,” investigators said. The neighbor let the kidnapped woman into his apartment until law enforcement arrived, where she called her husband and described the fake ICE agent, authorities said.
The husband said the description sounded like his ex-girlfriend, who had shown up at his work two years earlier and attacked him, prompting him to file a restraining order against her, according to the Miami Herald.
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Battle was arrested on her way to Alabama and charged with kidnapping in commission of a felony, robbery by sudden snatching, impersonating a law enforcement officer in the commission of a felony and felony violation of probation.