A 20-year-old Winter Haven man, Joshua Scott Medler, was detained on Saturday by the Polk County Sheriff’s Office (PCSO) for reportedly sending a series of graphic and threatening text messages to a victim.
The investigation began earlier that day, when PCSO deputies looked into the threatening messages. The victim, who was acquainted with Medler but had not recently spoken with him, first received a phone call from an unknown number. When the victim responded, all they heard was a garbled voice.
Following the call, the victim received a torrent of text messages from the same number. In the texts, the suspect referred to himself as “Josh.”
The threats grew fast, with some of the content including:
- “Don’t act like I don’t know where you live ****.”
- “Pray for your parents.”
- “I’ll beat the brakes off of you that’s obvious.”
- “Yup 30 min eta”
In addition to these claims, deputies said that numerous other text messages and photographs sent to the victim were “very graphic.”
Deputies apprehended Medler and took him into arrest. His cell phone was also seized as evidence in the ongoing inquiry.
Medler was taken to the Sheriff’s Processing Center and charged with making written threats to kill or injure and using a two-way device to commit a felony.
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