She told cops a stranger beat and robbed her. It was her brother, Florida police say

A woman told police she had been attacked and robbed by a stranger after pulling over on the highway to change her baby’s diaper, but investigators say she was actually covering for her drunk brother who beat her up, according to a Florida sheriff’s office.

The woman told deputies that at around 12:30 a.m. Dec. 14, she pulled her vehicle over on the shoulder of Interstate 4 near Championsgate, a community in Four Corners, according to a charging affidavit from the Osceola County Sheriff’s Office. While she was attending to her baby in the backseat, she said she was dragged to the ground and beaten by a man in dark clothing.

The woman told deputies that the man took two bags from her vehicle as well as her iPhone, the affidavit says. She told investigators that she was not able to use the Find my iPhone feature to track her phone, nor was she able to get into apps to check her bank accounts to see if they had been fraudulently accessed.

Later that morning, just after 9:30 a.m., deputies responded to a disturbance call at a home and recognized the woman there as the same woman who had reported being robbed on the side of the interstate, the affidavit says.

That’s when she told deputies that she had gone to pick up her 25-year-old brother from a bar on the night of Dec. 13 and was driving him home when he “got mad” and started screaming at her, the affidavit says. He started to hit her, and she pulled off the highway, according to the affidavit.

He then “dragged her out of the car and started beating her,” the affidavit says. Her children were in the vehicle at the time. He hit her repeatedly in the face and head until she broke free, got back into the car, locked the doors and drove home, the affidavit says.

She told police that she decided to call law enforcement later in the day because her brother had returned to the home where she was staying and she was worried about her family’s safety.

While deputies were at the home, the brother walked in with cuts and bruises and ripped clothing, according to the affidavit. He told deputies that “when he drinks, he ‘doesn’t remember what happens’ and that ‘his temper is bad,’” the affidavit says.

He was arrested and charged with felony battery, according to the sheriff’s office. He was issued a $5,000 bond, according to Osceola County jail records.

Four Corners is about 35 miles southwest of Orlando.