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Victim's quick action foils kidnapping

A traffic stop of a Polk County car with no taillights leads to freedom for a Lakeland man from the car's trunk and the arrest of four acquaintances.

By COLLEEN JENKINS
Published October 7, 2005

DADE CITY - It seemed like a mundane car stop.

Barely into his 5 a.m. shift on Thursday, Pasco sheriff's deputy Chad Tadlock noticed a tan Toyota Camry with a Polk County license plate driving through Dade City. The car's taillights were out.

Tadlock pulled the driver over.

Four friends from Lakeland were inside. Tadlock wrote the driver a citation for inoperable taillights. Something in her purse caught his eye. He saw what looked like rolling papers for marijuana.

Could he search her car for drugs? he asked.

She agreed. The four friends got out of the car.

Then Tadlock, a five-year veteran of the Sheriff's Office, thought he heard a noise coming from the back. He asked the friends if they had something in the trunk. They said no.

Tadlock heard the noise again. He went to check things out.

The decision likely saved Wendel Prestridge's life. That, and some quick thinking by Prestridge.

The 31-year-old Lakeland man had spent the night in that trunk, allegedly bound and gagged by the people inside the Camry because they didn't want Prestridge dating one of their friends. And according to authorities in Polk and Pasco counties, who recounted these events, the Camry crew had planned to kill their fifth passenger.

Except Prestridge outwitted them. Barely conscious, he disconnected the taillight wires to try and alert police that something was wrong.

Officials weren't certain where he got the idea, but they were happy to pass along the tip.

"He's a lucky man," Pasco sheriff's spokesman Doug Tobin said of Prestridge.

According to Polk officials, Prestridge's nightmare began in Lakeland at about 8:30 p.m. Wednesday. The four friends showed up at his home. They argued about Prestridge's girlfriend, apparently an ongoing source of contention.

"They keep interfering and harassing him about it," Polk sheriff's spokeswoman Carrie Rodgers said.

The friends - Amy Welch, 21; Johnathan Luesing, 20; Justin Deel, 19; and William D. Poole, 18 - persuaded Prestridge to come with them to Deel and Poole's home. That's where police said they beat Prestridge until he passed out.

When he woke up, he had been bound and gagged and was being lowered into the Camry's trunk. Before they shut him in, authorities said, the friends left Prestridge with an ominous threat: They planned to kill him and dump his body in the Green Swamp area that straddles Polk and Pasco counties.

At one point, Prestridge managed to free himself and open the trunk.

Welch, who was driving, quickly pulled over. The friends found rocks and beat Prestridge unconscious once again.

Prestridge eventually came to and came up with the wire trick.

It worked. At 5:51 a.m., the deputy made his stop. Soon after, he called the Polk County Sheriff's Office to the scene.

Rodgers said she wasn't surprised Welch agreed to the search or that the search produced far worse than drugs.

"Nine times out of 10 (deputies) find other things," she said.

"It was good police work," Tobin added.

Prestridge remained at a Pasco County hospital Thursday evening; officials would not say which one. He was conscious and able to talk with authorities but had suffered severe bruising and cuts on his back, arms and head.

All four people in the Camry were in the Land O'Lakes jail Thursday evening, held without bail.

Rodgers said they will be charged in Polk County with attempted first-degree murder, robbery and armed kidnapping.

Colleen Jenkins can be reached in west Pasco at 869-6236 or toll-free at 1-800-333-7505, ext. 6236. Her e-mail address is cjenkins@sptimes.com

[Last modified October 7, 2005, 01:50:23]