3 Loxahatchee teens arrested in armed robbery of Wellington teen
A fourth is already being held in Feb. 2 assault, officials say.
LOXAHATCHEE GROVES — Three Seminole Ridge High School teens face charges in an armed robbery of a Wellington teen, court records show.
Austin Vanderplate, 17 of Loxahatchee, 16-year-old Lance Soucy of Royal Palm Beach, and Natalia Alves, 15 of Loxahatchee, were booked Friday into the Palm Beach County Jail on adult charges of armed robbery and burglary with assault.
A fourth teen, 18-year-old Nicholas Wildeman, was arrested Feb. 4 on armed robbery and assault charges in the Feb. 2 incident.
The Wellington teen and three others drove late Feb. 2 to a wooded area near A Road and 160th Street North, according to sheriff ’s office records. Two of the people wandered off, he said, and it was just him and Alves in the car.
A white SUV pulled up and three teenagers jumped out. The sheriff ’s office identified those teens as Wildeman, Vanderplate and Soucy. Their faces reportedly were covered with T-shirts, and they were carrying metal baseball bats.
They hit him several times, the teen said, and threw something in his eyes that caused him to be temporarily blinded.
The three ordered him out of the car and grabbed his backpack. “Stay out of Loxahatchee,” they reportedly said. “Go back to Wellington.”
The teen could only recognize one of the alleged attack- ers, Wildeman, and that was due to a scar under Wildeman’s left eye. The teen said they met in a juvenile first-offender program and stayed in touch through social media.
Sheriff ’s office records indicate Alves knew about the plans to rob the teen.
A l v e s , Va n d e r p l a t e a n d Soucy attend Seminole Ridge High School, according to sheriff ’s office records. It’s unclear whether Wildeman, a Palm Beach Shores resident, attends school.
As of Tuesday afternoon, Wildeman remained in the Palm Beach County Jail on a $100,000 bond. Vanderplate and Soucy are being held on $70,000 bonds.
Alves was released Saturday from the county jail on a $50,000 bond.