An Atlanta woman got her stolen phone back from police, then found her attacker had allegedly recorded a threat as her voicemail greeting

A Georgia State University student who was attacked and robbed on a Midtown Atlanta street says the man accused of doing it left her a message in a place she did not expect. Amaris Coleman says a threat and a demand for money were recorded as the voicemail greeting on the phone that was taken from her.

According to Fox, Coleman discovered the voicemail greeting three days after the attack and one day after the suspect was arrested. Police say Phelan Thorpe, 30, followed her from the Midtown MARTA station on a Saturday afternoon before attacking her at an intersection. Her phone and identification were stolen, and police have not recovered either item.

Thorpe faces charges including battery, robbery, terroristic threats and hijacking a motor vehicle. He has not been convicted, and the recording has not been independently verified as his voice. The station said it obtained the audio from Coleman’s family, and the account of how the voicemail greeting was found comes from her.

The voicemail greeting reportedly included a threat and a demand for $600

In the recording, a man’s voice says he no longer cares about the phone. The speaker then makes a violent threat in crude terms. He goes on to say he has her ID and adds, “I need $600 on my cash app,” according to the audio as it was described in the report.

Coleman has described the attack itself in stark terms. “I’m in the middle of the street, fighting for my life in the broad daylight,” she said. Surveillance video released by police appears to show her trying to get away before a man tackles her and punches her while she is on the ground.

Officers went to arrest Thorpe two days later after a report of a wanted man with a gun in southeast Atlanta. Police say he jumped into a marked patrol car and drove off, then crashed it into a tanker truck on I-675 in Clayton County. A warrant reportedly claims he threatened to shoot the officers before getting into the cruiser.

The voicemail greeting surfaced the next day. Coleman said she still feels nervous and unsafe, even with the suspect in custody. However, she also expressed some sympathy after hearing about the crash, saying it made her feel bad as “that’s still somebody’s child” and that she did not want him to burn to death.

She was more direct about his record. Coleman called Thorpe “a menace to society” and questioned why he had been free before the attack. “His whole M.O. is to beat people up and steal things that aren’t his,” she said. Police records reportedly show arrests going back to 2009, with prior charges including theft, robbery, battery and terroristic threats.

Recorded demands for money have featured in other recent cases. In a Denver kidnapping case, three men were sentenced after prosecutors said they filmed the abuse of their roommate and sent the videos to his wife with a ransom demand. In Atlanta, the demand was purportedly left on the victim’s own number.

Thorpe waived his first court appearance, and a judge set bond at $67,000. Jail records show he remains in custody. However, it is not clear from the reporting whether the terroristic threats count relates to the voicemail greeting or to the threats he allegedly made toward officers during the arrest.

Coleman’s phone and ID are still missing, and her loved ones have started a fundraiser to help. They said that beyond replacing those items, the Georgia State senior needs to find some peace after the attack. As the phone was never recovered, it is also unclear how the voicemail greeting was recorded or whether it has since been removed.

No further court dates have been reported, and prosecutors could still add counts as they review the stolen cruiser and the voicemail greeting recording.