Howard Van Sweringen, 41, is accused of pursuing 35-year-old Kristina Fuller, apparently ramming her vehicle several times and, at one point, throwing his dog at her. He was arrested Thursday at Lakeland High.

LAKELAND — A Frostproof man is facing charges after trying to run a woman off the road to "talk with her at any cost," according to the Lakeland Police Department.

Howard Van Sweringen, 41, is accused of pursuing 35-year-old Kristina Fuller, apparently ramming her vehicle several times and, at one point, throwing his dog at her. He was arrested Thursday at Lakeland High.

"This is something you see in the movies or on TV," Fuller said. "Now, it has happened to me."

The incident began about 7 a.m. Thursday after she dropped her daughter off at school and noticed Sweringen in a white Ford F150 pickup following her on Bartow Road.

He rammed his vehicle into hers, almost causing Fuller to lose control of her car, an arrest report says.

She turned onto Frank Lloyd Wright Way in an effort to get away from him.

"At every stop sign, he would come up next to my truck," Fuller said. "I started going down random roads just to try to get rid of him."

When she got to Harden Boulevard and Beacon Road, the situation got even scarier, she said.

"He gets out of his truck, walks up to my door and I roll down my window a bit," Fuller said. "He threw his dog through the window."

Afraid the miniature pinscher would bite, Fuller threw the dog back to Sweringen.

"I was yelling at him," she said. "He gets back in his truck and starts hitting my truck from behind."

Worried that he would follow her home, Fuller called the school, told the secretary about the situation, asked that the school resource officer to help and started driving back to Lakeland High.

"I wasn't expecting anything like this ... I wasn't prepared," Fuller said. "I didn't even think to call 911, I was so scared."

While driving back to the school, Sweringen rammed his vehicle into Fuller's again, according to the report, but she ultimately made it to the school safely.

"I ran inside, grabbed the officer and when we came outside, we found the guy trying to get into my truck," Fuller said. "He told us he was looking for something for his headache.

"He seemed completely out of his mind," she said.

When a police officer approached Sweringen, he started yelling and acting erratically, according to LPD. He was arrested and charged with aggravated battery and trespassing on school grounds.

Sweringen gave police conflicting statements, the arrest affidavit says.

He told them that he didn't know Fuller, "but knew he had to watch her." He told them Fuller's parents told him to watch her. He told them he rammed his vehicle into hers because she wouldn't stop to talk to him "after they had partied all night." And he told them he thought Fuller was pretty and wanted to "talk with her at any cost."

Fuller suspects Sweringen thought she was a student and that he was at the school looking for a young victim.

She said Sweringen told her he was going to find her and kill her.

"When I read in the police report that he thought I was pretty and was going to talk to me at any cost, I broke down crying," Fuller said. "I've cried so much through all of this ... I'm scared out of my mind.

"I have a gun next to me now," she said. "I thought I was calm, (but when I hear about it) my heart just starts pounding again."

— Madison Fantozzi can be reached at madison.fantozzi@theledger.com or 863-802-7547. Follow her on Twitter @madisonfantozzi.