Woman arrested for keying victim’s car in bowling alley parking lot

Staff report

GAINESVILLE, Fla. – Petergay Paige Edwards, 23, was arrested last night for allegedly keying and denting a car parked at a bowling alley.

On the evening of May 18, an Alachua County Sheriff’s Deputy responded to Splitz (1301 NW 76th Blvd.) and reported that the victim’s car had multiple deep scratches and long scratches on all the body panels; one of the new scratches spelled out a derogatory word, and a deep dent and missing paint appeared to have been caused by an intentional and forceful hit from another vehicle door.

The victim suggested that Edwards might have caused the damage because the two women had a history of conflict and she had seen Edwards in a nearby parking lot. She said Edwards had followed her out of that parking lot until she dropped off her passenger, a person Edwards had been looking for.

The deputy found Edwards’s vehicle and conducted a traffic stop; he asked Edwards if she’d been having issues with someone, and she reportedly said she had.

Edwards reportedly gave consent for the deputy to look at her keys, and the deputy noted that the inside key portion of the key fob had large paint chips and dust that matched the victim’s car and were consistent with scratching a painted surface. The deputy noted that since the key was inside the key fob, it would not normally have large amounts of dust or paint on it.

Post Miranda, Edwards reportedly would not say why those substances would be on her key. She initially evaded the deputy’s questions about whether she had scratched the victim’s car, but she later admitted to scratching a vehicle at a trail a month ago. She eventually reportedly admitted to scratching the victim’s car at Splitz.

Edwards has been charged with felony property damage. She has no criminal convictions, but she is facing a sworn complaint for making a written threat to kill the same victim. Judge Joy Danne set bail at $1,000.

Articles about arrests are based on reports from law enforcement agencies. The charges listed are taken from the arrest report and/or court records and are only accusations. All suspects are innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.