Bail bondsmen arrested after abduction

SPRINGFIELD, Mo. -- Three bail bondsmen were arrested for allegedly abducting a man from a busy restaurant parking lot after they apparently failed to tell police about what they were doing, authorities said.

The bail bondsmen -- two men from Mississippi and a woman from Little Rock, Ark. -- were stripped of their weapons before they were released from the Greene County Jail on Saturday afternoon pending further investigation. It was unclear if the bondsmen displayed their weapons at the restaurant, said Greene County Prosecutor Darrell Moore.

Missouri law requires bondsmen and bounty hunters to notify local law enforcement before nabbing someone.

The abducted man was taken to a Springfield hospital after he told officers he was beaten by the bondsmen, said Springfield Lt. Mark Webb.

"There are a lot of people out there that think this is the 1870s and they are bounty hunters. We can't have that," Moore said. "Not only do they put other people at risk, other law-abiding citizens could have used deadly force -- they could have shot the bondsmen."

Authorities did not release the identity of the man who was grabbed or why the bail bondsmen would have wanted him.

City, county and state patrols started searching for the man after his girlfriend called police when he was grabbed while leaving a Shoney's restaurant.

An officer eventually spotted the bondsmen's vehicle heading south on U.S. 65 into Christian County and authorities arrested the bondsmen.

Drusilla Kothenbeutel with Four Aces Bail Bonds in Ozark said people with bail bond companies must know state laws before a capture. It's also important to notify police or county officials of operations.

"If you're sitting outside, staking someone's house out, you don't want to alarm neighbors," Kothenbeutel said. Bail jumpers would be alerted if police stopped by, she added.

"In certain towns, police will actually go with you, so that makes it easier for everybody," she said.