{"id":309779,"date":"2026-06-16T22:07:20","date_gmt":"2026-06-16T22:07:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/309779\/"},"modified":"2026-06-16T22:07:20","modified_gmt":"2026-06-16T22:07:20","slug":"st-pete-man-arrested-outside-avon-park-walgreens-after-traveling-to-meet-teen-deputies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/309779\/","title":{"rendered":"St. Pete man arrested outside Avon Park Walgreens after traveling to meet teen: deputies"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">AVON PARK, Fla. (WFLA) \u00a0\u2014 Body camera video shows the moment deputies dragged a man out of his vehicle in a Walgreens parking lot, where he thought he was meeting a 15-year-old, according to authorities.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/reel\/1360446319343726\/?s=single_unit\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"elm:link;elmt:article_link;slk:Highlands County Sheriff\u2019s Office said;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;context_link&quot;,&quot;yModuleName&quot;:&quot;content-canvas&quot;,&quot;yLinkText&quot;:&quot;Highlands County Sheriff\u2019s Office said&quot;}\" class=\"link \">Highlands County Sheriff\u2019s Office said<\/a> its special victims unit began communicating with a man from St. Petersburg on June 10 after he tried to contact a 15-year-old in Sebring.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">A detective posed as a 15-year-old and messaged David Richard Letro, 44, who said he was house-sitting for a friend at a home in the Sun \u2018N Lake community.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">HCSO said Letro messaged the detective, wanting who he thought was a teenager to swim and drink margaritas at the home.<\/p>\n<p><img alt=\"&lt;em&gt;Photo courtesy of the Highlands County Sheriff\u2019s Office&lt;\/em&gt;\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"960\" height=\"540\" decoding=\"async\" data-nimg=\"1\" class=\"rounded-lg\" style=\"color:transparent\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/ce69a9184eb0bf57734392ad17ccd6d2.jpeg\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Photo courtesy of the Highlands County Sheriff\u2019s Office<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Letro then arranged to pick the teenager up at a Walgreens parking lot in Avon Park around 9 p.m. on Saturday, HCSO said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Deputies approached Letro\u2019s car as soon as he parked, dragging him out of his vehicle and placing him in handcuffs, according to body camera video.<\/p>\n<p><img alt=\"&lt;em&gt;Photo courtesy of the Highlands County Sheriff\u2019s Office&lt;\/em&gt;\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"960\" height=\"540\" decoding=\"async\" data-nimg=\"1\" class=\"rounded-lg\" style=\"color:transparent\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/e9aa47ee93e676d2a4f8f0efbfa1f64f.jpeg\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Photo courtesy of the Highlands County Sheriff\u2019s Office<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Letro was accused of four counts of using a computer to seduce or lure a child, traveling to meet a child after using a computer lure, interference with the custody of a minor and an open container violation.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Copyright 2026 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.wfla.com\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"elm:link;elmt:article_link;slk:For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WFLA.;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;context_link&quot;,&quot;yModuleName&quot;:&quot;content-canvas&quot;,&quot;yLinkText&quot;:&quot;For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WFLA.&quot;}\" class=\"link \"> For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WFLA. <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"AVON PARK, Fla. (WFLA) \u00a0\u2014 Body camera video shows the moment deputies dragged a man out of his&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":309780,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[129199,129198,129200,202,204,203,199,201,200,36465],"class_list":["post-309779","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-st-petersburg","tag-david-richard-letro","tag-highlands-county-sheriffs-office","tag-special-victims-unit","tag-st-pete","tag-st-pete-headlines","tag-st-pete-news","tag-st-petersburg","tag-st-petersburg-headlines","tag-st-petersburg-news","tag-walgreens"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/309779","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=309779"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/309779\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/309780"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=309779"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=309779"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=309779"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}