A 28-year-old Miami man was arrested after police say he tried to run down a woman with his Mercedes SUV when she declined his unusual fetish request during their first meeting at a hotel.
According to an arrest affidavit,Sercle had connected with the victim through the dating app Seeking (formerly Seeking Arrangements). The woman, who identified herself as a foot model, told authorities she believed she was meeting Sercle to sell him a pair of sneakers.
Things took a turn as soon as she entered the room. The woman said Sercle immediately asked to sniff her feet and purchase her used sneakers. She wasn’t feeling that and instead offered to sell him the pair for $1,000—what she described as her “standard professional rate.”
“When I got there, he just wanted to sniff my feet and I didn’t feel comfortable with that,” she later told Local 10 News. “I mean, you could have my sneakers all you want… they’re just stinky old sneakers. But people like weird things.”
The encounter quickly escalated. The woman told police that when she went to the bathroom, Sercle bolted from the hotel room. Believing he had stolen something, she chased him into the parking garage, where he entered a red Mercedes SUV.
Police say Sercle then accelerated toward her, stopped, made a three-point turn, and struck her with the vehicle. The impact left her with bruising and road rash to her back, arms, and chest. She required immediate medical treatment.
“By the grace of God, I’m still standing today, she said. I’ve never experienced anything like this before. I’ve met a lot of people who have foot fetishes, obviously, and nobody has ever done anything to this caliber.”
Sercle fled the scene but returned days later. On August 29, hotel staff recognized him as he attempted to book another room at the Serena Hotel and notified police. He was taken into custody and charged with aggravated battery, a second-degree felony that carries up to 15 years in prison and fines up to $10,000.
He was booked into Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center on a $3,000 bond before bonding out. He has pleaded not guilty and is scheduled to appear in court on September 29.
This isn’t the first time Sercle has faced accusations tied to his behavior on dating apps. Court records show multiple open cases in Miami-Dade County involving women he allegedly lured to hotels before robbing them. Detectives say the Aventura case fits a pattern.
Police called the situation “extremely bizarre,” and the victim says she’s just grateful to have walked away from it.
