PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) — “Listen up,” the note left on a Porsche SUV read. “I know where you live.” The writer demanded $10,000 and claimed if the victim showed the note to anyone, “I will come after you when you are sleeping.”
The Lane County woman, who found the note on Valentine’s Day, took the note to Eugene police detectives. Investigators said she was randomly targeted because of the “high-end Porsche SUV” and was assumed by the note-writer to be wealthy.
The note’s author suggested the money be put into an envelope and delivered at 8 p.m. on February 15 at 1255 Mill Street. “Once you get there, you will walk to the grey mailboxes” then look for a water meter. The note included a drawing.
“Don’t tell anyone or I will end you. I will see you soon! I’m watching!”
Detectives set up an undercover mission and put a ” bank bag with fake money” in the water meter.
Around 8:20 p.m. police said, Dylan Ray Browning lifted the lid to the water meter and took the bag.
He was arrested and told police he “randomly selected” the woman’s vehicle because it was a “high-end Porsche SUV” and assumed that whoever owned it would be wealthy.
He also allegedly admitted planning the extortion by himself to settle a $9000 gambling debt.
Browning appeared in court earlier this week on a single charge of theft by extortion, posted $7500 bond and was released.
Prosecutors indicated they will seek a departure sentence — that is, a longer prison sentence — if they’re able to convict Browning. They say he committed the crime because he was “motivated entirely or in part by the race, color, religion, ethnicity, national origin or sexual orientation of the victim.”
“The defendant must be incarcerated to ensure public safety,” prosecutors wrote.