LARIMER COUNTY, Colo. — A Berthoud man is facing kidnapping charges after he allegedly tricked a woman and drove her to a hotel in Denver.
On Saturday around 10 p.m., an employee with Berthoud Hometown Liquor on Meadowlark Drive called the Larimer County Sheriff’s Office to report that an employee was missing.
The caller told authorities that a regular customer had come into the store around 8:30 p.m. and asked for a ride because his car was out of gas. One of the female employees agreed to give him a ride, but hadn’t returned to the store, the caller said.
Deputies investigated the incident and found that William Phillip McDonough, 44, of Berthoud had convinced the female employee that he should drive her car because he knew where they were going. But instead of driving to his home, he drove about an hour south to the Sheraton Denver Downtown Hotel.
At the hotel, McDonough disrupted a large group in a ballroom. While the details around the disturbance are unclear, people in the room called Denver police. When officers arrived, they arrested McDonough for a municipal violation for carrying a concealed weapon without a permit.
The woman was not injured. McDonough did not threaten her with the weapon, police said.
He was booked into the Denver City Jail. On Tuesday, investigators with Larimer County obtained a second-degree kidnapping arrest warrant for him. He posted a $20,000 bond for the warrant and was released from the jail Tuesday afternoon.
Anybody with information on this incident is asked to call Larimer County Sheriff’s Office Investigator Drew Weber at 970-498-5172.