◆ A Polk County deputy

resigns after her arrest on charges of misusing her official position, burglary with battery, and aggravated stalking.

A Winter Haven man told investigators he awoke about 10:30 p.m. Tuesday to a car horn honking outside his house. Soon, its driver was banging on his front door. When he opened it and told the woman to leave, she began yelling and cursing, he said.

He tried to shut the door, but the woman — Polk sheriff ’s Deputy Silvia Lara, 26, — wouldn’t let him, preventing it from closing and grabbing his arm, leaving him with scratches, he said. It was only after the man’s mother told him to call law-enforcement that the deputy at his door finally left.

Lara was arrested Thursday, accused of misusing her official position, aggravated stalking, burglary with a battery and misusing the state’s motor-vehicle database. A patrol deputy hired in November 2015, she resigned upon her arrest, the Sheriff’s Office said. If she hadn’t quit, she “would have been terminated,” the agency added.

According to an arrest report, the man said he and the deputy had been involved romantically “on and off” for about 18 months, but she “wanted more and had become angry with him.” He also lives with another woman, with whom he’d been in a relationship about four years, the report said.

The trouble began in December, the arrest report said.

Lara drove to the man’s house in uniform, telling a person who answered the door there had been a 911 call and she was there to ensure everyone was safe. Told there wasn’t an emergency, she left — but parked about a block away in her patrol car, the report said. When the man’s girlfriend left the house to smoke about 15 minutes later, Lara confronted and threatened her with being arrested, the report said — telling the woman she had 48 hours to move out of the house or she would be jailed for trespassing.

According to the Sheriff’s Office, the stalking resumed Sunday, when Lara was dispatched to Winter Haven Hospital after a traffic crash. While at the hospital, she spotted cars belonging to the man and his girlfriend in the parking lot. They were there on an unrelated matter.