Man reports kidnapping at gas station

By Angie Thompson/senior reporter

TIFTON — A man arrested Wednesday night at Wal-Mart and charged with loitering is also being investigated for a kidnapping reported to have occurred a few hours earlier at Enmark at the corner of 20th Street and Tift Avenue. Authorities are urging anyone with information in the kidnapping case to come forward with it.

William Hill Jr., 29, 1620 Snapfinger Road, is being held on loitering charges and also being held as the investigation into the earlier kidnapping incident continues.

According to Bryan Cavenaugh, a detective with the Tifton Police Dept., when he got to work Thursday morning he learned that Sgt. Steve Laska had arrested Hill for loitering and that Hill was a possible suspect in the kidnapping case.

“At this point in the investigation, we have different versions of what happened,” Cavenaugh said. “We have been to the store (Enmark) and found that they have a great camera system with several cameras but, unfortunately, the camera needed was not positioned to capture this incident.”

According to Laska’s incident report, a 39-year-old man reported that he was pumping fuel into his vehicle at Enmark on 20th Street at 6 p.m. Thursday when he was approached by a white male, approximately 5’10” tall and weighing 180 pounds. He said the man, who had short, sandy brown hair, was wearing blue jeans, a tan T-shirt and a dark-colored bandanna. He said the man had a scar on his left cheek and was in his late 20s or early 30s.

The man reported that when he told the offender he didn’t have any money, the man pulled a folding knife with a dark handle on him. He estimated the knife had a 4-inch blade. The man forced the complainant into his own vehicle and told him to drive to U.S. Highway 82. He said the offender kept the knife in his hand and close to him as he drove. The man got out of the vehicle at Central Avenue and U.S. Highway 82 next to Bob’s Flowers and began walking west. The complainant returned home and then called E-911 to report the incident.

At 10 p.m. Thursday, Laska responded to Wal-Mart to reports that a man wearing a blue bandanna and an orange shirt was there asking women for help. When Laska arrived at Wal-Mart and made his way to the parking aisle where the man was believed to be, he noticed Hill talking with two females at their vehicle. The officer wrote that he received several report from other officers while he was en route to Wal-Mart indicating that the man might be armed with a knife. He wrote that the man had been reported begging for money three times earlier in the day.

Laska wrote that he put Hill against his patrol car and patted him down. Laska reported that when he asked Hill what he was doing, Hill replied “nothing,” and told him that a man was supposed to give him a ride home but he didn’t know the man’s name. Hill was arrested for loitering and placed on hold for detectives to talk to him in reference to the earlier incident.

Cavenaugh said he and TPD detective Len Moore and it was revealed that Hill was involved in the kidnapping case. As of Friday, he had not been formally charged.

“We are asking anyone that might have seen what happened to give me or detective Moore a call,” Cavenaugh said.

To contact senior reporter Angie Thompson, call 382-4321.

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