(PORT CHARLOTTE) Charlotte County Sheriff’s deputies arrested a Deep Creek man Thursday for stalking a 20 year old woman for over a month. Charged with Stalking was Michael John Mangiero, 48, 437 Londrina Drive, posted a $1,000 bond this morning and was released.
On Feb. 13, the Port Charlotte woman told deputies a man in a white Dodge van had followed her to her work and was the same man who had been stalking her before in a blue Plymouth van. She told deputies she tried to lose him by making U-turns, speeding away, and one time when he pulled alongside of her she slammed on the breaks and got his license number. The woman said about a month earlier the man pulled up to her car in a parking lot, reached out of his window and grabbed her by the shoulder. He also had been seen multiple times driving by where she worked. She told her boss and one time when he escorted her to her car, the stalker sped off.
Deputies ran a check on the tag number which came back to Mangiero who owned two such vans as reported by the victim. Deputies contacted Mangiero and they met at the District-4 Office in Port Charlotte. He first said, “I know what this is about.” He said saw the woman and thought she was cute and waived at her. He denied ever touching the woman on her shoulder. A check of Mangiero’s criminal history showed on Jan. 24 he was trespassed from the Rainbow Food Mart on Harbor Boulevard for parking his blue van outside and approaching women asking for sexual favors in exchange for money. On April 16 he was accused of following an 18 year old woman multiple times and said, “It was a coincidence.”
Tuesday, deputies showed the victim and her boss a photo line-up of six men and both positively identified Mangiero. He was located at his home at 9:30 p.m. Thursday, arrested, and taken to the Charlotte County Jail.