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Police: Las Vegas man traveled to Kentucky to kidnap teenage girl he met on app

BOONE COUNTY, Ky. — Benjamin J. Margitza, 18, was arrested Monday and charged with attempted kidnapping.

Boone County police said he traveled to Kentucky "with the sole intention" of making contact with a 16-year-old girl, whom he had met on an app called Flinch four years prior.

The sheriff's office said over the past year, Margitza contacted the victim again and started making explicit, sexual comments and saying how he wanted to marry her.

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Police said Margitza flew from Las Vegas to northern Kentucky and made contact with the victim in her school parking lot and grabbed her arm while holding a backpack filled with rose petals.

The victim was able to get away with the help of a male student who stepped in.

The girl ran inside to get help.

The school resource officer went outside and found Margitza sitting in the back of an Uber.

He was arrested and charged with felony attempted kidnapping and criminal trespass.