UNIVERSAL CITY, TX - A 17-year-old Texas woman and her significant other of the same age are facing aggravated robbery charges, with potentially more charges to come, in a case authorities have described as a romantic luring scheme to attract young men and boys only to be ambushed and robbed by the alleged offenders.
Universal City officials issued a press release in late May detailing the arrests of Alyssa Canul and her 17-year-old boyfriend, Anthony Aguilar, with the pair being accused of executing a scheme authorities described as “luring young men on online dating sites, then robbing and assaulting them.”
Authorities have identified at least two victims of this alleged scheme, both of whom were reportedly lured out to a park bench where Canul was seated at Red Horse Park in Universal City where she’d then escort them to a nearby apartment complex. In both cases, upon arriving at the apartment complex, the victims were allegedly ambushed by Aguilar and robbed at gunpoint.
Local reports note both robberies occurred during the early morning hours of May 25, with the first victim being robbed at approximately 3:00 a.m. of his phone, car keys, shoes and jewelry before being struck in the head with a pistol. The second victim, identified as a 15-year-old male, was robbed of his cash and shot four times in the arms and legs at approximately 5:45 a.m. before fleeing to a nearby coffee shop for help. Authorities say the gunshot wound victim was transported to an area hospital and treated for non-life-threatening injuries.
Police were reportedly able to identify Aguilar as a primary suspect after both victims described the male assailant as possibly wearing an ankle monitor, which residents of the apartment complex identified him as being the only tenant adorning one. Investigators were able to track movement of Aguilar’s ankle monitor, who was on house arrest for an unspecified offense, around the time of both robberies.
Aguilar was the first to be arrested on charges of aggravated robbery, with police later obtaining a recorded phone call between him and Canul where she allegedly admitted to disposing of the gun allegedly used in the two robberies.
Canul was later booked into the Bexar County Detention Center on May 28 on two counts of aggravated robbery, with authorities saying she could face additional charges of tampering with evidence.
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