Video Story
Watch VideoKidnapping victim recovering in hospital
Story By: Rachel Hoffenberg
Source: KOAA
Garnett Wright is recovering in the hospital and her condition has been upgraded to fair after she was kidnapped from a Colorado Springs store parking lot over the weekend and hit several times in the head with a brick.
It’s a woman's worst nightmare. On Saturday afternoon, police say 59-year-old Garnett Wright was leaving the Cheyenne Mountain Target, when 41 year old Timothy Clapp, threw her into her car and knocked her unconscious. After driving around for several hours, he finally stopped. When Wright woke up, she was alone on the floor in her car's backseat in an apartment complex parking lot. Her wrists were tied together and her head was covered, she was able to untie herself and call 911 from her cell phone.
Kerry Doll is from 911 Dispatch. She says in the call, Wright "said that the person who had abducted her had hit her over the head several times. Had covered her up and put her in the back of her vehicle. At the time, she wasn't sure if he was still in the area. So it was quite scary."
That call came in at 1:07 p.m. Wright didn't know where she was, but officers found her in just six minutes later. Operators say there were two key things that led this positive outcome. Wright's cell phone had a GPS chip dispatchers used to narrow down her location to within 100 feet. And Doll says she was able to give them some important information. "The vehicles in the parking lot. The building description. The color of the balcony. A streamer hanging from the roof. The trees that were in the area. Just very good information."
All cell phones from 2006 or newer are equipped with the GPS technology. But experts advise don't rely on your cell phone to save you. Sam Rush-Walton is the director of FULLPOWER, which teaches self defense. "The way we carry ourselves can actually, in many times, prevent us from being chosen as their next victim. If we walk with confidence and awareness, they're more likely not to choose us." She says the best thing to is to "Just as you walk around in the world, pay attention."
Timothy Clapp is being held in the criminal justice center on $100,000 bond. He faces several felony charges including second degree kidnapping, assault, and robbery.
