Largo Police have arrested a man they say followed a woman for more than a mile, threatened her life and eventually broke into her van, all in a case of road rage.
The incident started in the parking lot of a strip center along Indian Rocks Road when a woman accidentally entered the exit.
"I don't think I've ever been more scared in my life." Judith Villavisanis said.
Villavisanis, an artist, had just left a home where she is painting murals when she decided to stop in a Goodyear Tire shop.
"I inadvertently went into what would have been the exit," she said.
She says no cars were present at the time, but David Hoffman Derek came driving up quickly as she was trying to get out of the way.
"Giving me the finger and cursing at me," She recalled.
Villavisanis noticed Derek was following her, so she decided not to stop. Instead, she started heading back to the home she was working on to grab some supplies she had left behind.
She says she pulled up to a red light and Derek pulled up next to her.
"He pulls alongside me in the turning lane and gets out of the vehicle and starts pounding on my window and screaming and yelling at me,"she said.
She quickly drove off and pulled up to a security gate outside of the home she was working on. She initially thought Derek had moved on. As she was tying in the security code, he pulled up behind her and got out of his car a second time.
"Screaming, 'You're dead, you're dead,'" Villavisanis said.
She took off again.
She drove a quarter of a mile down a private road. Derek continued to follow. She pulled into the home's driveway. Derek parked right next to her.
"And he gets out of his vehicle and was threatening me with ‘You are dead.’” She said. "I ran in, and I locked the door."
She says the incident didn't stop there. Derek then broke into her van.
"And starts breaking stuff, grabs my purse."
Her purse was found 30 feet from her van, according to police.
Villavisanis' boss was inside of the home and called 911. He then went outside to confront Derek. He said Derek appeared to be drunk and quickly took off while he called police.
While he managed to get away, Villavisanis and her boss had his license plate number leading police to his home on Mallory Drive.
"He has a problem. He has a definite anger problem," Villavisanis said.
According to police, Derek claimed Villavisanis crashed into him in the parking lot. He admitted to breaking into her van to look for her ID for insurance purposed. There was no call to police about an accident in the parking lot of the strip center.
Police believe alcohol was a factor in the incident.
Derek is being charged with stalking and burglary.
