A TEACHER was arrested after she allegedly pinned down a naked man and helped steal nearly £1,000 from his Apple wallet.
Amanda Crafts, 35, is accused of teaming up with Veda Engel, 23, to carry out the casino prostitution plot at an Atlantic City hotel bar.
The pair allegedly got chatting to a punter inside Caesars, a luxury ancient Rome-themed resort in the gambling mecca, on October 9.
The man exchanged numbers with Engel, who later invited him to a hotel room at Harrah’s Resort, according to a criminal complaint obtained by The New York Post .
He told police that the two women stripped him naked before Crafts held him down while Engel performed a sex act, the document said.
Engel then stopped abruptly and said: “That’s what you get for your $1,250,” according to Breaking AC.
Crafts allegedly used her 12st frame to continue pinning the man down as Engel opened his iPhone using FaceID.
They then made four separate transfers to her account totalling $1,250 (£934), the alleged victim told police.
Lawyers for Crafts, a single mum-of-four, claimed she had part in the alleged theft and was unaware that Engel was engaging in prostitution.
“I’ve never been to jail,” the teacher told Judge Timothy Maguire at a video hearing on October 10.
“I’ve never been arrested before. I was in the wrong place at the wrong time.”
Crafts’ lawyer claims she met Engel and the man at the bar that night and thought that they were going to the hotel room to keep the party going.
Charles Peruto Jr. told The Post: “Amanda Crafts is highly intelligent and wouldn’t participate in anything like that.
“She was in the room and wanted to leave and didn’t even realize it was a prostitution thing.”
He alleged that the man only called cops to the room after the session ended earlier than the hour he had paid for.
Crafts was there “strictly to party” and not participate in any prostitution or scam, he said.
Peruto added: “Maybe the prostitute took advantage of him but my client had nothing to do with it.”
Engel has a previous prostitution charge from last December after she allegedly propositioned an undercover cop for $1,000 (£747).
She and Crafts were held at the Atlantic County Justice Facility for six days and released on October 15, per state records.
Crafts was removed from her position as a computer teacher at Middle Township Middle School in Cape May, where she had worked since 2016.
The school announced that Crafts was “no longer employed by the district,” in a letter to families and staff on October 19.
Stephanie DeRose, superintendent of the area’s public schools, said: “The safety and well-being of our students remain our highest priority.”
