An 18-month-old baby was snatched from his mother by an armed man at an apartment complex in Lady Lake.
The baby’s mother said that 23-year-old Steven Richard Allen Jr. pointed a gun at her at about 1 a.m. Tuesday at the Comfort Suites in The Villages, according to an arrest report from the Lady Lake Police Department. He demanded that she “drive to where all the money is” and that if she didn’t, he would “shoot her in front of her son.”
The woman, who had previously had a sexual relationship with Allen, drove to The Quarters Apartments on Teague Trail in Lady Lake with Allen following her. When they arrived in the parking lot, Allen and a male companion pointed guns at her. Allen snatched the child and the woman’s phone. He demanded money.
The woman went to her current boyfriend’s apartment and called law enforcement. When she went back outside, Allen was gone. She thought he left with the child, but she found the baby in her car at about the time police arrived on the scene. She reported that $570 in cash had been taken from her.
Lake County sheriff’s deputies stopped Allen’s vehicle at about 3:30 a.m. He had nearly $600 in cash as well as a Smith & Wesson firearm with nine bullets.
Allen claimed he had obtained the cash at Wawa in Lady Lake, but he did not have any bank or ATM cards. He also claimed he met the woman at the Comfort Suites because he was interested in purchasing a pit bull. He said he followed the woman to The Quarters Apartments to look at the puppy. He claimed the woman could not reach her boyfriend on the phone, so Allen said he and his companion left.
He was arrested on charges of aggravated kidnapping, armed robbery, assault with a deadly weapon and being a felon in possession of a firearm and ammunition.
He was booked without bond at the Lake County Jail.
Allen was living at the Rolling Acres Apartments in 2017 when he was arrested in an attack on his pregnant girlfriend over her phone usage. He was arrested earlier this year with a mask and a firearm.
