Some things really are too good to be true.

What sounds like a dream job for many turned into a nightmare for a local girl in May, when her hopes of becoming a marijuana tester at Walmart turned into getting raped behind Food Lion.

According to police reports, a young woman showed up at the LaFayette Walmart around midnight on May 31st, expecting to be paid for smoking pot.

She was lured to the store after hours by 22-year-old Steven Skinner, who offered her a job on Facebook. When she called him, he claimed to be a “huge” Atlanta marijuana dealer who didn’t use drugs but needed someone to quality check weed for him.

The girl involved, also 22 at the time, told LU he claimed to have gone to high school with her but has no recollection of ever meeting him in person before May. He knew quite a bit about her friends and relatives, but apparently gleaned all of that information from social media before their appointment.

Sitting in the closed Walmart parking lot, Skinner used a story of “black thug” drug dealers hiding in a car to convince the woman to ride with him to Highlands Shopping Center, the old Food Lion location, where they would have more privacy.

After arriving at the North Main Street shopping center, Skinner told the young lady he had a gun, gave her $700 (but no marijuana), and persuaded her to pose for nude photos.

They sat behind the Farmer’s Furniture and former Food Lion building for some time as Steven Skinner used threats of the “black thugs” harming the girl’s family and friends to pressure her into sex.

Eventually the victim gave in to his sexual demands. Afterwards she was taken back to the closed Walmart and allowed to leave in her own car.

The victim initially kept this situation to herself in fear of what might happen to family members in retaliation, but finally reported the incident to a sheriff’s detective in August. After interviewing the woman, officers in the Walker County Sheriff’s Office sent her to LaFayette police for further statements since the alleged crime had occurred inside city limits.

Kerry Steven Skinner, of a Maple Drive address in Summerville, was arrested August 6th on a charge of “pandering by compulsion.” Pandering is a charge normally associated with prostitution; apparently investigators felt the $700 Skinner handed his alleged victim and the lack of physical force involved didn’t qualify his alleged actions as an actual rape.

Mr. Skinner was released from jail on a meager $2,000 bond a day after his arrest. His alleged victim has since moved out of state.

This incident might have resulted in no charges at all, the victim’s word against Mr. Skinner’s word with no direct witness, if not for a similar complaint filed against him by another younger girl in March.

Per media reports, a 19-year-old LaFayette girl was also allegedly lured to Walmart by Steven Skinner on March 11th, expecting him to provide her with a job in real estate. When she arrived, per reports, he changed the job description to “marijuana testing” for the government.

She, too, was pressured into sex but resisted – only allowing Skinner to take nude photos before returning to her vehicle. He later called and made threats about harming her family, which she reported to the Sheriff’s Office. (There are no charges filed in that case, so far.)

LaFayette police officers say Skinner may have had other victims before or after the two known incidents, and ask anyone else involved with him to contact law enforcement.