A woman’s life was on the line until her husband’s call to 911 saved her.
Priscilla Cercone, 49, was sitting in her car in front of her house in Hollywood, Florida, talking to her husband on a Bluetooth device Tuesday when an armed man on a bicycle pulled up next to her and demanded to be let into the car.
Cercone’s husband overheard her conversation with the suspect and asked what happened, according to the police complaint affidavit. When Cercone didn’t answer, the husband hung up and called 911.
“She was screaming and he said ‘don’t scream or else I’ll kill you,'” Cercone’s husband can be heard saying on the 911 call to the police dispatcher.
“He was under the impression it was a home invasion, so police went to the house, they made entry and swept the house and they found that she was not there,” said Hollywood police spokesman Jaime Hernandez.
That’s because the suspect, Bernard Owens, 21, forced Cercone to drive to an ATM machine where she withdrew $400 to give to him, police said.
Then Owens ordered her to drive back to her house, asking her what valuables she had and who was at her home, police said.
As Cercone turned onto her street, she saw police cars in front of her house and jumped out of her moving car. Owens also got out of the car and took off across a vacant lot before police officers apprehended him.
According to the police complaint, Owens is a convicted felon who is now charged with robbery with firearm, possession of a weapon by a convicted felon, kidnapping and false imprisonment of an adult, and kidnapping to commit a felony.
According to the Broward State’s Attorney Office, the case is in the filing stages and the system does not show an attorney representing Owens.