Police: 4 Adults, 3 Children Held Hostage Inside Bucks County Apartment
BRISTOL Twp., (CBS) -- A Bucks County family held for ransom is safe thanks to the quick actions of a bank teller.
Police say the suspects were armed and they used their weapons to threaten and to hold the victims hostage for about nine hours.
Of the victims, three were children; the oldest was just four-years-old.
According to police, 38-year-old Orlando McNeil was the mastermind behind the kidnapping and robbery of four adults and three children, all allegedly held inside a Bristol apartment overnight Sunday for ransom.
"We believe that the females were told to strip, take their clothes off. Once they stripped, then they put their clothes back on. The males we believe were also stripped and told to put their clothes back on ... and the male subjects, their mouths were duct-taped," said Lt. Terry Hughes of the Bristol Township Police Department.
The other two men under arrest are 21-year-old DaeSean Smith and 18-year-old Dennis Redding. Police say their plan foiled when one of the victims was forced to withdraw $80,000 from his bank account Monday morning.
According to court documents, the victim received the money from insurance after his mother died. Police say the victim told a teller at the bank his family was in danger and asked for police.
"Once we got there, we got into a foot pursuit with two of the subjects. Two of the subjects that were armed were taken into custody. They discarded their weapons and their weapons were found," said Hughes.
Police say it is unclear if the suspects knew the suspects, but it appears the suspects somehow knew about the insurance money.
None of the victims were physically injured.
All three suspects are in jail, each being held on $1 million dollars bail.
