A bank customer shared a terrifying story with a teller on Monday morning.
Six family members and friends — including three girls under age 5 — were being held by two kidnappers with guns at his apartment, the customer said. If he didn’t withdraw $80,000, the amount of a life insurance policy award that he recently received, they would be harmed, he said.
Hours later, though, the two suspected kidnappers were arrested and on Monday night a third man, who police say was the mastermind, was under arrest in the failed kidnapping plot. No one was hurt and an investigation into the incident is continuing, police said.
Bristol Township police say that Orlando McNeil, 38, of Bristol Township, targeted a Bristol Township man — whom he knew as a “hustler” who would have money on him. McNeil — who was recently paroled from state prison, police said — recruited two Philadelphia men, Daesean Smith, 21, and Dennis Redding, 18, to participate in the robbery, police said.
Initially, the three men planned to lure the man to a nearby apartment complex to rob him, but the man refused to leave his apartment in the
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| Dennis Redding, Daesean Smith, Orlando McNeil |
Levittown Trace complex on Ford Road.
So the three suspects drove to the apartment complex where Smith and Redding, armed with guns, burst into the man’s apartment Sunday night, police said. McNeil, who dropped the pair off, allegedly waited outside in a black SUV.
Smith and Redding forced the adults to strip, but then let them put their clothes back on, Bristol Township Police Lt. Terry Hughes said. The pair duct-taped the men, but did not duct-tape the women or children, ages 1, 2 and 4, Hughes said.
The suspects held the seven hostages overnight until the Bristol bank opened Monday morning, Hughes said. The man and his girlfriend went unaccompanied to the bank to withdraw the money, Hughes said.
After the bank representative notified police about the alleged kidnapping plot, Bristol Township police coordinated with neighboring departments in Bristol and Tullytown, and Bucks County sheriffs, Hughes said.
Bristol Township police officers arrived at Levittown Trace in an unmarked car and saw the two suspects, who then ran away, court records show. Police also found the black SUV parked nearby with McNeil in it, according to a probable cause affidavit. All three men were caught after a foot case involving a Bensalem K-9 unit.
Police recovered two handguns they believe the suspects dropped along with a victim’s cell phone and a victim’s driver’s license, according to the affidavit.
After he was in police custody, McNeil told police he intended to rob the man but that he knew nothing about an insurance payout, and he knew nothing about Smith and Redding taking the victim to a bank to get a large sum of money, according to the probable cause.
Smith and Redding were arraigned Monday afternoon before Bristol District Judge Frank Peranteau on seven counts each of kidnapping, robbery, burglary and related charges.
McNeil, who was arraigned Monday night before Bristol Township District Judge Joanne Kline, faces identical charges as well as simple assault and possessing an instrument of crime. He was sentenced to six to 12 years in state prison in 2005 after he was convicted in Bucks County court of robbery and aggravated assault, according to online court records.
All three men were sent to Bucks County prison in lieu of 10 percent of $1 million apiece.
Jo Ciavaglia: 215-949-4181; email: jciavaglia@phillyBurbs.com; Twitter: @jociavaglia;
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