TULSA, Okla. – Tulsa police arrested one man in connection with the kidnapping and drugging of a car salesman who was carjacked during a test drive.
Pablo Vasquez Villanueva, 22, was booked into the Tulsa Jail on complaints of kidnapping, robbery with a firearm, possession of a stolen vehicle, possession of controlled drugs and resisting arrest, according to records.
The car salesman, Todd Persons, was released from a hospital but was still ill Wednesday from the effects of the pills he was forced to ingest, which might have been Xanax, Sgt. Dave Walker said.
Villanueva was arrested about 1:40 a.m. Wednesday. Police found him sitting behind the wheel of a Cadillac Escalade that was stolen Tuesday evening.
Persons, a salesman with Tulsa United Motor Sales had gone on a test drive in the Escalade about 5 p.m. Tuesday with two men who told him they intended to pay cash for the SUV, police reports indicate.
At some point, the two men tied up the salesman with his shirt and forced him to take some unidentified pills. They then dropped him off in a field near Bixby and left in the sport utility vehicle.
Persons saw a police car parked outside a nearby home and, when no one answered the door at the house — where a Tulsa police officer lives — Persons got in the car and used the police radio to call for help, officers said.
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