- A man was charged this week for allegedly kidnapping Michael Bloomberg’s housekeeper at his Colorado ranch.
- The suspect had been looking for Bloomberg’s daughters, according to court documents cited by the Associated Press.
- He told the housekeeper, who was unharmed, he tried to find Bloomberg at an airport last year.
A man charged with kidnapping Michael Bloomberg’s housekeeper was apparently looking for the billionaire’s daughters, according to the Associated Press.
Joseph Beecher, the 48-year-old suspect, drove his truck through the gates of Bloomberg’s 4,600-acre Colorado ranch on Wednesday, where he then held a supervising housekeeper at gunpoint, federal court documents said.
A Colorado affidavit obtained by the Associated Press added that Beecher asked for the whereabouts of Bloomberg’s two daughters, Emma and Georgina, whom he referred to by name.
Beecher also told the housekeeper he had gone to an airport in the area last July searching for Bloomberg, according to an arrest affidavit cited by the AP.
The suspect later ranted about Bloomberg and said he wanted to “make an international scene” with the former New York City mayor or his daughters, according to the AP.
He forced the housekeeper to drive the two of them off of the property in her truck, a federal affidavit said. The suspect made her withdraw money from an ATM, where she mouthed the words “help me” at a surveillance camera, according to the AP.
Investigators found the woman the next day at a motel in Cheyenne, Wyoming by tracing her iPad. The woman was not harmed and the suspect was arrested with an AR-15 and a handgun, according to the affidavit. The woman later told FBI agents that Beecher “made her sleep in the bed with him, with her head on his chest, her arm around his middle, and her leg over his. He held one arm over hers.”
The suspect was charged with kidnapping in federal court on Thursday. Police say the suspect had no connection to the Bloombergs or the housekeeper, and they are investigating his motive.
