DALTON, Ga. — A Chatsworth man was arrested early Tuesday morning after his ex-girlfriend said he tricked her into thinking she was meeting with a detective and used pepper spray on her to get back a cellphone he had given her.

Brian Douglas Thomas, 39, was charged by the Dalton Police Department with aggravated assault, battery (family violence), burglary (forced entry), robbery (forcible purse snatching), impersonating a public officer and making false statements/writings or concealing facts from a government investigation.

According to an incident report, a caller to 911 told dispatch shortly before 11 Monday night that a disturbance was going on in the room next door at the Howard Johnson on College Drive and a woman could be heard screaming, “Help me” and “Don’t put your hands on me.”

The woman told an officer she and Thomas broke up earlier in the day after living together for “about one month.” She said he had texted her and said he had filed a missing person report on her and gave her the number of a person he said was a detective. She called the number and the person claiming to be a detective said he needed to know her location so he could send officers to “check on her.” She told the person where she was, believing he was “a real detective.”

She told the officer that shortly after the call, she heard knocking on the door that sounded like “a police knock.” When she asked who was there, a man’s voice answered, “Detective.” She said she opened the door and Thomas was standing there and “pushed his way into the room” and pepper sprayed her after saying, “I told you not to mess with me.”

She said Thomas kept telling her he was there to get back a phone he had given her and she said it “was her phone.” She said he put her in a “choke hold” and “began to choke her until she could not breathe.” She said Thomas also kicked her and grabbed her by her arms. He eventually left with the phone and her pepper spray.

Thomas was found by the Chatsworth Police Department at the McDonald’s in Chatsworth. When the Dalton officer arrived, Thomas denied being in Dalton earlier that night and said he was with his father “all night.” After talking with the father, the officer spoke with Thomas again. He said he had gone by the Howard Johnson to get the phone and that the woman had left the phone outside of the room so he could get it.

Thomas was granted a $7,500 bond on Tuesday.