Cops arrest 2 suspects in bizarre kidnap-and-ransom scheme

NEW YORK (FOX5NY.COM) - Some NYPD officials said that a kidnap-and-ransom plot that started with a routine fender bender is one of the most bizarre cases they've ever investigated.

The case involves a car accident, an attempted extortion, a kidnapping, a ransom, and finally a chase involving police officers.

It started Monday afternoon in Brooklyn when a delivery man driving a delivery van accidentally hit a parked car. It ended near the intersection of West 72nd Street and Broadway in Manhattan.

After the delivery man hit the parked car, a man approached him and insisted the delivery man pay him $1,000 to make it all go away, according to Capt. Timothy Malin, the commander of the 20th Precinct. The delivery man called his boss, who told him he should exchange insurance information.

Then that man, identified as Rondell Halley, 33, and an accomplice, identified as Francisco Jimenez, 24, pulled a gun on the delivery man and told the boss he was "going to have to pay us" if they wanted to see the driver or the van again, according to Malin.

They were to meet the boss and pick up the ransom at a bank near 72nd St. and Broadway on the Upper West Side.

Police said Halley and Jimenez drove from Brooklyn into Manhattan with the kidnapped delivery driver in a BMW and hoped to collect about $700. What the men didn't know is that the boss had called the cops.

Police said the kidnappers brought the delivery man to the bank, where police arrested one suspect while the other fled in the BMW, but crashed into a nearby building. He tried to escape but officers captured him on a fire escape.

Authorities charged Halley with kidnapping, criminal possession of controlled substance, criminal possession of a weapon, criminal possession of narcotics, and reckless endangerment.

Jimenez faces kidnapping, criminal possession of controlled substance, criminal possession of a weapon, and criminal possession of narcotics charges, police said.