Congressional aides foil abductors on Capitol Hill

cnn.com/AllPolitics ^ | September 19, 2002 | AP

[reformed_democrat]

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Two congressional aides abducted from their Capitol Hill apartment foiled a robbery attempt early Wednesday by offering to retrieve money from a House office, where police made an arrest and took custody of a second gunman waiting outside in a car.

[reformed_democrat]

Tim Johnson is my congressman, and I've met Jerry Clarke several times (he ran Jim Ryan's primary campaign).

Let's wish these guys the best. They did something very few others would have thought to do, and they lived to tell about it.

Congressman Johnson's DC office: (202) 225-2371
Main district office (Champaign, IL) (217) 403-4690
Danville office: (217) 431-8230
Bloomington office: (309) 663-7049

Good job, guys.

[jerod]

Washington may be where all the power is - but I wouldn't want to live there.

Drove through it a couple of times on my way to Florida and I found it to be a very scary area.

[reformed_democrat]

It's a lot like Atlantic City. Once you get past the casinos, all you see are tenements and pawn shops.

[Holding Our Breath]

Oh puh-lease! There are nice parts of DC just like in any city. ANd the surrounding mtro area is beautiful!

[AdamSelene235]

Good to see that D.C. is gun free just as our founders intended.

[AdamSelene235]

Oh puh-lease! There are nice parts of DC just like in any city. ANd the surrounding mtro area is beautiful!

Pity they are exempt from the Bill of Rights. Why would anyone give up their freedoms to live there?

[twigs]

I was robbed at gunpoint not too far from the Longworth building nearly 20 years ago. I loved Capitol Hill, but I wouldn't be there now for anything. I'm glad these two men kept their wits about them. It saved their lives.

[twigs]

There are nice parts of DC just like in any city.

That's true. I loved DC and I lived in one of those areas. When the detective drove me around to look for the perp that robbed me, I was astounded to see the slums a very few blocks from my home. Unfortunately, DC is not safe.

[r9etb]

Messrs Littlejohn and Caldwell are shoo-ins for the next edition of "Stupid Criminal Tricks."

[hispanarepublicana]

Clarke said he warned the man about building security checkpoints and talked him into stashing his gun in a garden along the way.

The scary part is, it took the fastest sperm of the bunch to make this dumb crook.

[reformed_democrat]

I loved Capitol Hill, but I wouldn't be there now for anything.

Personally, I would live in Virginia and get a concealed carry permit.

I lived back east several years ago, and spent some time in DC. Beautiful, but deadly. I got lost there (surprise, surprise -- you can't get out of the city the same way you got in due to construction/one-way streets/bureaucratic whims) and still believe the only thing that saved me was the fact that I had a really ratty car.