A 21-year-old Polk County man looking for love on a dating website became the victim of a brutal attack instead.
Investigators said an underage girl made a profile on the website Plenty Of Fish in order to lure men into a robbery.
Over the weekend, the victim took the bait and met the girl at the McDonald's on Combee Road in Lakeland.
"If you don't do a background investigation on your own of anybody you date on a website, you can end up with a lot of surprises," said Sheriff Grady Judd.
The first surprise popped up when he arrived to the meet-up spot and the girl, who we are not naming because she's a minor, brought her so-called brother.
He's actually Christopher Williams, and the two are not related.
She asked, and the victim agreed, to drive Williams down the road and drop him off.
"That's when he walked around to the driver's side of the victim's car and just beat the stew out of the victim, took his wallet, tossed him out of the car and off they went," Judd said.
The chance at love turned into a brutal carjacking.
The only good news for detectives is the female suspect made a very silly mistake.
They said she used her real picture on the Plenty Of Fish profile.
"We recognized the female… Thank you very much," said Judd.
Deputies went to her parents house and brought her into custody. She then led them straight to Williams.
Judd said anyone on a dating website must tread lightly. He recommends meeting in a restaurant, getting to know the person and their friends, and what they like to do before thinking about joining them in a car.
"You make that choice to go on a dating site and you take whatever comes your way. And in this case, whatever came his way was a beat down and the loss of his car," he said.
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