Robbery suspect jailed

Woman, 18, charged with 10 felonies in pepper-spray thefts

Erica Abraham of Hollywood has been charged with 10 felonies related to pepperspray robberies in Plantation and, police allege, involved her underage brother in the crimes.

Police say in Abraham’s first three weeks of legal adulthood, the 18-year-old Hollywood woman:

Led two minors, including her 15-year-old brother, in pepper-spray robberies in Plantation.

Was spotted by surveillance cameras and a former school classmate working a Pollo Tropical drive-thru trying to spend the robbery booty

Flipped on her younger brother as an accomplice under police questioning.

Abraham, who turned 18 in January, sits in Broward County Jail on $356,000 bond covering the 10 felony charges and a misdemeanor involved in all of the above. She has pleaded not guilty to all charges.

Plantation police arrested Abraham on Jan. 23 as one of the three suspects in robberies that unnerved Publix shoppers in Plantation. From Jan. 15-18, four people described criminals popping out of a black Nissan Altima, firing pepper spray to the eyes, then robbing the blinded amid agony. All the victims were women. Three of the four got robbed after Publix shopping trips.

An arrest affidavit for Abraham says law enforcement in Broward, Miami-Dade and Palm Beach counties recognized the simple, but effective method of operation. Several Broward agencies met on Jan. 19 and determined one set of criminals committed most of the robberies.

The last of the Plantation robberies involved a senior citizen. Surveillance cameras saw a dark Nissan Altima tailgating the senior’s Hyundai through the security gate of her housing development. The woman told police the Nissan rear-ended her. When she got out to assess the damage, the attack began.

Police say the woman’s debit card was charged in the Pollo Tropical drive-thru. The young woman working the window recognized the young woman driving the dark sedan as Erica Abraham.

Police say they recognized Abraham on a Jan. 15 Chevron gas station surveillance video, using a credit card stolen 15 minutes earlier in a spray-and-grab.

A Broward sheriff’s unit took in Abraham with a 16-year-old female. Police say the teen said Abraham was the getaway driver in the robberies and Abraham’s younger brother was involved in a pepperspray robbery at a Dania Beach Publix. That’s when Abraham admitted her brother’s involvement. Her brother and the 16-year-old female were taken to the Juvenile Intervention Facility.