Crime Fix with Angenette Levy - Florida Woman Posed As Homeschooled Teen To Target Boys: Police

Episode Date: December 26, 2025

Alyssa Zinger, 24, faces a list of charges related to allegations that she posed as a homeschooled 14-year-old girl so she could have sex with teenage boys in 2023. Zinger has been held without bond since 2024 after police said they discovered the case involved more than one victim. Her trial is currently scheduled for late May 2026. Law&Crime’s Angenette Levy goes through everything we know about the case in this episode of Crime Fix — a daily show covering the biggest stories in crime.PLEASE SUPPORT THE SHOW:Grow your own audience today – go to https://opus.pro/crimefix for 1 week free plus 50% off the first 3 months of Opus Pro.Host:Angenette Levy  https://twitter.com/Angenette5CRIME FIX PRODUCTION:Head of Social Media, YouTube - Bobby SzokeSocial Media Management - Vanessa BeinVideo Editing - Daniel CamachoGuest Booking - Alyssa Fisher & Diane KayeSTAY UP-TO-DATE WITH THE LAW&CRIME NETWORK:Watch Law&Crime Network on YouTubeTV: https://bit.ly/3td2e3yWhere To Watch Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3akxLK5Sign Up For Law&Crime's Daily Newsletter: https://bit.ly/LawandCrimeNewsletterRead Fascinating Articles From Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3td2IqoLAW&CRIME NETWORK SOCIAL MEDIA:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lawandcrime/Twitter: https://twitter.com/LawCrimeNetworkFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/lawandcrimeTwitch: https://www.twitch.tv/lawandcrimenetworkTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@lawandcrimeSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Wondery Plus subscribers can binge all episodes of this Law and Crimes series ad-free right now. Join Wondry Plus in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify. Not quite. That was Alyssa Zinger. In 2023, as police investigated her for sex crimes, detectives said the 22-year-old bakery worker posed as a teenage girl to have sex with teen boys. I look at everything we know about the case and why Zinger still hasn't gone to trial. I'm Ann Jeanette Levy, and this is Crime Fix. Have you ever wondered how we are able to share so many clips from breaking news cases as they are unfolding?

Well, here's a little secret. Opus Clip is an all-in-one AI editor that makes it a breeze to cut, create, and upload videos across any platform. Through AI, Opus Clip generates B-roll, reframes footage, and, even cleans up audio. Just visit opus.pro slash crime fix, sign up and upload. In minutes, you'll have perfectly edited clips ready to go. For TikTok, shorts, or reels, it's a one-stop shop. Having opus clip means our producers can post viral updates instantly. This is the most powerful tool for sharing ideas and editing like a pro. So go to opus.com slash crime fix to create your videos today. Alyssa Zinger is now 24 years old and months away from a trial for sex.

crimes she faces in Florida. Her case is shocking and disturbing for many, many reasons. Zinger was 22 and working in the bakery at Publix when she was accused of posing as a homeschooled 14-year-old girl so she could have sex with five boys who were either 13 or 14 years old. The investigation started more than two years ago. In October 2023, Tampa Police got a tip that Zinger was having an inappropriate relationship with a boy. The following month, Zinger was arrested and charged with two counts of felony lewd or lascivious battery and five counts of lascivious molestation. A judge allowed her to be out of jail on pretrial release, but then detectives said they discovered four additional victims and things got much, much worse for

Alyssa Zinger. Now she faces 11 felonies and she's being held without bail at the Hillsborough County Jail. Investigators even say they have videos to support the charges that Zinger faces and her case has taken a while to move its way through the courts. She has two new private lawyers now after her court-appointed lawyer withdrew from the case around Halloween in 2025. Whether a new set of lawyers will help or hurt her case, we don't know. But right now, her case is set for trial in late May of 26, and there's also a new judge on her case. The prior judge, Laura Ward, had reprimanded Zinger at a hearing once telling Zinger each time that she shook her head in disagreement with the prosecutor, you don't seem to understand that the problem is not who recorded the video. The problem

is you are in multiple videos with young boys 13 and 14 years old. You are an adult. You are manipulating, taking advantage of these young boys. When prosecutors showed body worn camera footage from the search warrant execution, Judge Ward called out Zinger's parents for enabling this type of behavior. Now let's take a look at what the judge could have been referring to. This is From November of 2023, Tampa Police went to Zinger's home to take photographs of her bedroom. Alyssa Zinger was there with her parents and her dad did most of the talking. They have to do their job. It's their job to do.

We'll explain everything that's going on in a minute. I know what they want. They want pictures in her room to see the walls and see you say, oh, this is the room. She did it again. Do you have anything on you? Phones, tablets, anything? I have my. No weapons.

No weapons. No. Perfect, I appreciate it. We're not going to do something to say. Once again, this is something procedural. If there were any additional charges or anything like that, we would have communicated that with your attorney. And your attorney would get in contact with you guys

to make those kind of arrangements. We want everything to be as civil as possible. Whatever it comes to executing residential search warrants, that's something that they're not privy to with that information. That's something that we have to execute in a capacity of maintaining the integrity of the investigation. So we're not trying to scare you or anything. like that, you know, and this morning, like I said, you know, we were talking a moment ago,

it's that is all procedural, trust me. It's a headache for us to put all that together, too, whenever we know that it's nothing that's probably going to be needed. But because historically haven't been... He said, hey. I know, but they won't let us do that. You guys might do that. Other people... Absolutely. We have those 0.01% times where we think everything is going to go swimmingly, and unfortunately somebody comes out with, you know, with something violent. So that's why they have us do things a certain world. Now, the police officer explained to Zinger and her parents what they were going to do. Our crime's detection whenever she gets here, we're going to go through the house and we'll put pictures and document and stuff like that.

And she'll also get a copy of or she'll be a, you know, she'll get a copy of the search warrant to take pictures and document up too, which I'll go ahead and just kind of review this with you now, okay? So, you know, it's just so you know that it is something that is valid and signed by a judge, okay? So it says, whereas, complain on oath and in writing, supported by affidavit, has been made before me, Judge Thomas Palermo, and for Hillsburg County, Florida, by Amanda Beronowski, be me, be a fine of the Tampa Police Department who states, okay? It says that your client has reason to believe and does believe certain residents of Alyssa and Zinger, which would be you, located in Hillsborough County, Florida described as follows to it the residents of Alyssa and Zinger at 1714 Westmore Drive, okay, which is, you know, well, the color, I guess, could be debatable as far as what you exactly would want to describe it as. but, you know, all agree with brown trim or brown with brown with brown trim. The residence is located on the south side of West 4 Drive and is facing north. The defendant's parents identified in the address and the residence is the premise where the defendant occupies lives and has access to.

And there is now being kept in on said residents, certain evidence to wit, okay? And the scope of the search in this is for device, okay? The video inside the home is blurred. It's redacted. Singer's father had a couple of questions for these officers. The last time you guys did this, we were able to at least have a one person come with you. Because why is that difficult? It's technically this house is ours now.

We have a search warrant. It's ours. But we did do this. She signed. If she wants to allow that, it's up to her. This is her case. The main thing is as long as you're all together with the camera, you know, on this. I can tell you what I can be turned in a house of her.

No, what I'm saying is I just want it on camera what you're doing, you know, I'm saying, just for our, like not three in this room, two in that room, five, you know, doing this and that you go together, you do whatever you got to do, maybe 100%, you know, you're going to do it anyway, but you have our, you know, you have our, you know, I can't guarantee that that's the way it's going to be, like we don't normally record, you know, every single motion. We have the body camera here obviously, you know, record where you can, but we're also not going to be here until the three in the morning because we have to let one person. record everything we're doing, you're doing. So there's going to be a compromise there. But, I mean, next time I asked you guys maybe tidy up a little bit more and we'll give rid of some of the cluttered. I'm joking. This house is the most uncluttered house I've ever seen in my life. There's nothing in this house. Is that a picture up in the wall? There's not like a set of keys on it? Like, I mean, there's nothing. I know. We try to keep it. We got a model home. Now, at one point, Alyssa Zinger's father actually becomes emotional. He tells the officers that what's happened with his daughter's arrest has actually brought them closer together as a family.

And I can say one good thing that's come out of this. We've got her family. You know, we finally got her daughter back where she lays with us and watches TV. She hangs up with us now. But she won't have a phone ever again. When they came in to look for that phone, there was an iPad and a phone on the table. I looked at it. she goes, is that the phone? I said, I do believe so. I'd say, this is her phone here. Ha, ha, ha. No. I handed her the phone and said, I do believe it. And I even said, if you read, watch the body cam, said, what model is this? I'm not sure. I got like a freaking eight, you know? So she took her, she took the phone and that's that. Now, I wasn't trying to be removed of this. And any of fact, tell you this, if someone's trying to hide something, the phone was dead.

I said, you want to take your phone to leave? I'm sorry, I could have said if I was not trying to work with you people. But what did I say? I bet you you watch the camp. I said, ma'am, there's a charger right there. Go ahead and charge the phone. Like I said, I'm just telling you. I just want to let you know we're being transparent.

Police continue the search of the house, and Alyssa Zinger actually becomes concerned that photos might be posted online. Are they going to, like, close these pictures there? They don't post your pictures. This is for their investigation. It's nothing to be anybody's business. That's nobody's business. They just got to do their job. They've got to take pictures of what they need to do.

And I think you guys should leave. I can't. Well, I mean... Yeah. They surround the whole car. Like, I really think... I don't think they meant it like that. There's five cars and I had like that out.

Oh. Yeah. I can't go in the hot tub. My back or... I'm like a closed. Did they hear a collapse? They all... What, in her bedroom they do that?

They all broken. They all broken, and that's heavy. I think their main focus is in real. I'm going to collide. Yeah, they hear about my room, not bad. That's what they're worried about. Hey, they're doing their job. They're acting like I'm a murder, right?

They gotta, hey, they don't know who is here. They gotta protect themselves. This is a crazy world. People are mental. They've got issues. There's men probably out there that would do something stupid. You know what I mean? They gotta protect themselves.

attack themselves. You know what I mean? There's a lot of crazy people out there. So, and a lot of people don't like police. But that's not us. Like I said, we back you guys 100%. That's for sure. We have friends. You know, your friends are a lot of things. I have a lot of friends that are police and we're firefighters. About 10 minutes later, the Zinger's discussed again how they wished they had had a heads up on the search warrant being executed. I'll just tell you right now, that never happens. I'm being respectful of our stuff. This is a, you know, ripping your house apart, destroy your home,

you smash all your windows and flashbangs and I just wish they would have called this and said, hey, or called our attorney and said, hey, you'd like that, look it, come on. So I'll let you decide whether Judge Ward had a point or not based on what you're viewing in this body worn camera footage. Prosecutors had suggested at one point that Zinger's parents could have helped her hide evidence. A police report said Zinger sent a video of two teens, a 14-year-old and a 13-year-old having sex to other people on Snapchat. The 13-year-old boy told police he met Zinger on Snapchat. His name is redacted from the document.

It says, he said he was on Snapchat when he was 13 years old. He stated the defendant engaged him in a conversation on the social media. a platform, which was how they primarily communicated through their relationship. He stated they met at the end of May 23 and dated through the middle of September 2023. The boy stated he believed she was approximately 14 years old and homeschooled. However, he stated she physically seemed older than her age. The boy mentioned an incident back in July where he and the defendant were detained in a store at International Plaza for theft. During that incident, they couldn't locate her information, but did for a 21-year-old female. He disclosed that he and the defendant had been

physically intimate, alluding to a sexual relationship. Now, all of this came months after that incident that was referenced in the report that July 2023 incident, when Zinger and the teenage boy were at the mall, and they were suspected of shoplifting. A police officer called the teenage boy's father to pick them up, and that interaction shows Alyssa Zinger on body-worn camera talking to police. Take a look. So this is girlfriend, not your daughter? Okay. Have you contacted your parents? Yeah, but I can't get a hold of their word. Okay. Well, I got to try to contact them. Um, because how old are you? 14. Yeah, so unless they tell me that I could release him, which I'm sure they will, but I just, you read my text for legality purposes. I mean,

if you want to reach out to him just so I could speak with him, just obviously. You know, it's going to come with liability to me if anything was to happen. I understand that. But for my job and my purposes, I need to confirm that because you're a juvenile. So once your parents tell me that they're okay with you going with them, perfectly fine, okay? That's straight the voice mouth. Now that officer took Alyssa Zinger's name, date of birth, address, and her parents' name. And interestingly enough, he can't reach her parents.

Officer asks Alyssa Zinger an interesting question about whether she has a sister or not. You have a sister name, Alyssa? Yeah, I have sister. Yeah. Okay, but you don't have the same middle name, I'm assuming. I don't have anyone else. I'm going to document that you're going home with them. I tried to get in contact with their parents who made efforts.

So like I said, it's just for a lot of the reason. So you're Alyssa. What's your middle name? Just Alyssa's finger? Okay. All right. Like my mom was already going to come in me up at his house later. Anyway, my stuff's there.

So a 21-year-old Alyssa Zinger came up in the system when the officer looked up the name. And Alyssa Zinger told the officer, that's my half-sister. Same name. And the officer believed her. Eventually, the officer allowed Zinger to go home with the 13-year-old boy and his father. All right, so let's say you're going to go home with. Do you have any questions? No? We're not going to do this again?

Sure. Dad told me you made money and you could have spent $100. Right? All right, man, this is one shot. You get one shot through this program after this. no more. So it's just makes more choices, okay? All right, sir. You got to go. Take care. The 13-year-old boy previously told police, through their relationship, they engaged each other sexually approximately 30 times. Sexual activity was the most apparent thing for her. It was

known by everyone that that was what she wanted. The first time they had sex, he wasn't expecting it to happen so quickly, but after it was a pretty normal occurrence. The boy also described how Zinger behaved at times. She gets aggressive when she is upset and has tried to get physical with him in the past. She will throw things, try to fight him, et cetera. She doesn't really think before she does something. She also has a crazy ego when she is mad. She talks like she is invincible and no one can stop her. The defendant thinks she has all of the power in the world and threatened to have him jumped by high schoolers. When he threatened to break up with her, there will be instant texting, crying, screaming that she hates him, et cetera. After she will be

apologizing to him, she is all over the place and never in control. The relationship was stressful. It was ruining his grades, making his life hard, et cetera. He couldn't escape it. She was always trying to talk to someone and has dated four kids at his school to try and make him mad. She always tried to be in everyone's business, especially his. Police say that this teen teenage boy also told them that Alyssa Zinger might have some mental health issues. The report states regarding the mental health stuff mentioned with her family. He stated that when the defendant leaked the video of him, he learned that immediately after they took her to a mental hospital to have an exam. He feels she definitely has something going on. The defendant and her parents told him this. She told him that it was

his fault that she was there. He and the defendant got physical when he saw her take the video of his phone. Now, I reached out to Alyssa Zinger's new legal team for a comment on this case. I want to be clear. At the time of this recording, I have yet to hear back. As I mentioned earlier, Alyssa Zinger remains held without bail at the Hillsborough County Jail. She'll be back in court in February. Her trial again is scheduled for late May of 2026. And that's it for this episode of Crime Fix. I'm Angela Levy. Thanks so much for being with me. I'll see you back here next time. Thank you.