Kidnap Suspect Learned Ploy From BotchedCU Heist

MILWAUKEE - (12/03/04) -- A suspect in as many as a dozenkidnap-robberies was finally captured last week when Milwaukeepolice arrested him and a partner as they showed up to exchangetheir latest kidnapping victim for ransom. After his arrest,26-year-old Lamar Ray told FBI agents that he'd mastermindedsimilar crimes, beginning in 2001 when he targeted two employees ofthe Educators CU. But both attempts were botched. In one instance,an employee was shot in the shoulder. In the other, the employeewas tied up in her own garage and forced to hand over the keys, butRay told investigators he couldn't get them to work. Ray toldauthorities he learned from his mistakes in the failed credit unionincidents a year later, when he kidnapped the manager of anotherEducators CU branch, then he tied up her husband and son, beforeforcing her to open the credit union. He used the same plot insimilar robberies at Checkland and Check Cashers last year, policesaid.