South Florida woman arrested, charged after viral video shows confrontation with teens on e-bikes
A 61-year-old Pinecrest woman was arrested Tuesday after police said she confronted a group of teenagers on electric bikes, snatched a phone from one of them, and drove away along a bike path — an encounter that was captured on video and went viral on social media.
Silvia Carmen Perez was taken into custody Tuesday and charged with robbery by sudden snatching and battery in connection with the Oct. 18 incident near the 10200 block of Southwest 57th Avenue, according to a Pinecrest Police arrest affidavit.
The confrontation gained viral attention after Only in Dade posted video of the incident. The footage, recorded by one of the teens, showed the woman shouting angrily before the camera jolts and falls to the ground as apparently she snatched the device. The post has since been viewed hundreds of thousands of times and sparked widespread criticism online.
According to the affidavit, the group of juveniles had briefly stopped at the Wayside Market on Southwest 57th Avenue before continuing southbound when Perez, driving a black Bentley sedan, pulled up behind them, stopped, and yelled for them to get off the road.
After the teens moved onto the adjacent bike path, police said Perez parked perpendicular to it, got out, and aggressively approached them.
The video evidence, later obtained by investigators, reportedly showed Perez snatching the phone from the victim's hand, causing it to hit the pavement and injure the teen's right hand. She then lifted the damaged phone, threatened to throw it into a nearby canal, and dropped it again before continuing to yell at the group and bystanders who tried to intervene, according to the arrest report.
Perez then got back into her Bentley and drove north along the bike path, creating what police described as an "additional safety hazard."
She was arrested at the Pinecrest Police Department and booked into Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center, where she was ordered held for a bond hearing.