- March 27, 2024
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A 19-year-old man was arrested late Saturday after Flagler County Sheriff’s Office deputies said he made up a story about being abducted two days earlier from a Pennsylvania shopping mall.
Robert Geroux, of Stuartstown, Pa., was being released from the Flagler County Inmate Facility after posting $5,000 bail on charges of making a false report to law enforcement of a crime, tampering or destroying evidence and a felony charge of making false statements to law enforcement during a criminal investigation.
Deputies said Geroux approached them around 8:35 p.m. Saturday, at Old Kings Road North and Celico Way, when he claimed to have been abducted from an ATM two days earlier by a man armed with a gun.
He said the man ordered him to drive south on Interstate-95 to Florida, stopping at ATMs along the way until they ran out of gas in the Palm Coast area.
Geroux told deputies that the two stopped in the area of Graham Swamp, on Colbert Lane. There, the man took his laptop and wallet and walked into the woods, threatening to kill the teen if he left the car. After several minutes, Geroux hitchhiked to a gas station on Old Kings Road where he approached deputies.
Sheriff’s Office deputies began an extensive search in the Graham Swamp area for the alleged abductor. Volusia County Sheriff’s Office Air One conducted an aerial search and Flagler County Sheriff’s K-9 units searched the ground.
As they were investigating the incident, deputies discovered the teen had been reported missing Thursday from Stuartstown by his mother. The teen later admitted to investigators that he had set fire to his wallet and clothes as part of the faked the abduction.
“There was an extensive amount of manpower that was called into service as a result of this man’s reckless actions,” said Flagler County Sheriff Donald Fleming. “This resulted in unnecessary expenses that impacted two law enforcement agencies.”