Florida Man Arrested For Abducting His Neighbor Because He Needed Someone To Talk To

WPTV- According to Vero Beach police, Jessica Scoville and her husband David were sitting and smoking cigarettes inside a laundry room area on the rear porch of their residence when 61-year-old Leon Thurston appeared in the open doorway and told them they were being loud.

David Scoville told police that Thurston appeared to be carrying a black baton in his right hand and a small Derringer firearm in his left hand that was pointed toward him and his wife.

Scoville told police that Thurston said that Jessica was coming with him and then struck Scoville twice in the right shoulder area with the baton.

Jessica Scoville told police that Thurston took her to Charles Park where they walked around a dirt track and he spoke to her for the next few hours.

According to a release, Scoville says that when Thurston got up to go to the bathroom she saw her opportunity to get away and was able to flag down police officers, who then swarmed in and apprehended Thurston.

Thurston told detectives that he walked around with her and spoke to her to "blow off some steam", according to police.

Police say he claims he was not going to hurt her or do anything "inappropriate" to her, that he just wanted to talk.



Ugh, neighbors are the worst. Always complaining that you are too loud, or asking to borrow something, or inviting you to things you have no interest in attending, or apparently kidnapping you from the laundry room and making you walk around the park with them for a few hours. We really would all be better off if we just avoided our neighbors at all costs. Sure, they may be very friendly and you may get along with them great, but honestly, what are the chances of that happening? I think it's best if we just all just look straight ahead and focus on our own lives.

Poor guy. In reality this was just a sweet old man that was tired of a couple making a racket in the laundry room and just wanted someone to talk to. Probably has no wife or family to confide in. Just wanted to take a few laps around the park with another voice that wasn't resonating from his own head. In college my landlord was the same way. He used to come over unannounced and yell at us for the apartment undoubtedly being a train wreck.  Then he would basically hold us hostage in a house he owned by talking to us about school, and life, and the 4th roommate that we had illegally living there. This woman thinks a couple laps around the park on a warm summer night were bad? Try getting talked to at 9AM following tequila night while sitting in a complete and utter box of filth. Now sure, he didn't beat any of our significant others over the head with a baton and wield a pistol to keep us honest, but the point stands. If this guy got charged with armed burglary, aggravated battery, aggravated assault, kidnapping, false imprisonment, and carrying a concealed firearm then my landlord had to be guilty of something. If only I knew back then that I was a victim of something other than a mean hangover and the bubble guts...

P.S. Biggest rookie kidnapping move ever to let someone get away because you had to use the bathroom. Watch a movie for me one time Leon.