Photo by CCSO
Austin Peluchette
NAPLES — A 25-year-old Naples man was arrested Friday, accused of aggravated battery by using his car to ram another driver on Golden Gate Parkway.
The confrontation was over a failed drug deal, according to Collier sheriff’s reports.
Austin Peter Peluchette, 25, of the 2000 block of Castle Garden Lane, North Naples, was accused of aggravated battery with a deadly weapon.
The victim, who wasn’t arrested, and Peluchette met in the vicinity of Coastland Center mall and Freedom Park so they could exchange $1,000 for Roxicodone pain pills, the sheriff’s report said.
According to the sheriff’s report:
When they couldn’t make the deal, Peluchette told the person to give money to someone else waiting nearby who had a gun. The victim instead left in his silver Lincoln and Peluchette chased him in a white Chevrolet Trailblazer on Golden Gate Parkway.
The victim said he made a U-turn to try to get away but Peluchette drove across the median and rammed the driver’s side of the victim’s Lincoln with the left bumper of his Trailblazer. Peluchette made another U-turn and rammed the victim’s Lincoln again, which caused the Lincoln to jump the curb and pop a tire.
The victim was able to drive the Lincoln off the curb and drove east on Golden Gate Parkway with a flat tire until his car stopped working in the vicinity of Livingston Road. Peluchette followed him. They confronted each other and when Peluchette threatened to call police, the victim said he threw $900 into the Lincoln.
Peluchette was previously arrested in November 2011, when he was accused of stealing a credit card and an iPhone from a Cruise Naples customer's car after the customer rented jet skiis.
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Comments » 12
tallthin1 writes:
that's got to be the worst writing I've ever read.....
User5678 writes:
Why wasn't the 'victim' arrested for his part in dealing or attempting to buy a controlled substance? And what is the significance of the 'victim' throwing $900 into his own vehicle?
Robertofnaples writes:
A clear case of Stand Your Ground; if ever I heard one. Problem is fool; you didn't kill him!!!
savethewhalz writes:
That is a disappointed face. Perhaps an amorous 340 pound odorous Mexican cellmate at the stockade could brighten his day.
1947 writes:
This makes me very very sad.His fine family has tried so hard to get the right kind of counseling for him.He apparently has an addiction and suffers from a depression that drives him to drugs for relief.What anguish it causes his friends and family who love him but are helpless now.I don't think a prison is going to help,and being with true criminals who rape and murder is just not the right place for this person.Trust me, he could be anyone's son, and has a solid foundation. This is not typical of his history, but something ( addiction) has changed him. Sadsadsad.
profiler writes:
Got any left? I know a lotta people looking for them.
tampacoco writes:
Flippen losers all of them..
spartan10 writes:
UHHHM, thats not a drug, thats an herb. Unless my lingo translation is off.
what234 writes:
such bad writing....if you read it again you, it was the agressor that threw the money into the victims car.
better writing would make for less confusion.
wonderful (Inactive) writes:
I'm thinking that this reaction is ok. Read it in the drug-deal-gone-bad handbook put out by the dnc?
cnc1128 writes:
"VICTIM????" OMG he's a drug dealer and your crazy reporter calls him a victim? The whole story is so convoluted I had to read it twice to make some sense of it.
naplesbubble writes:
Not typical of his history? Have you looked at his past charges? Burglary, grand theft, fraud?? And $1000 of painkillers is no small addiction. And yes I feel sorry for his family but he made his own choices and this is where it got him.
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