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Senator's wife freed after abductionIncident linked to two others in the Washington area
McLEAN, Virginia (CNN) -- The wife of U.S. Sen. Judd Gregg of New Hampshire was abducted from her home in McLean at knifepoint Tuesday and forced to withdraw money from a bank before being released unharmed, police said Investigators linked the incident to two similar ones in suburban Washington that had occurred since Monday. The Fairfax County Police Department said Kathleen Gregg walked into her house about 9:30 a.m. and found two men waiting for her. They forced Gregg, 52, into the family car and drove to a nearby Wachovia Bank branch, one of the men riding with her and the other following in a silver-colored car. One of the suspects, a black man, entered the bank with Gregg as she withdrew money from a teller. A white man waited in the car. "Mrs. Gregg was escorted to the teller by one of the suspects, at which time she was directed to write out a check for a specific sum of money," said Maj. Steve Sellers of the Fairfax County Police. "The check was cashed." Police described the white man as in his early 20s, 5-feet-10-inches- to 6-feet tall, with a slender build. He was wearing a blue sweatshirt. The black man was described as being in his mid-20s, 5-feet-8-inches tall with a stocky build. He was wearing a leather hat and a dark jacket. Sellers said the bank gave police photographs and video of at least one of the suspects, and possibly both. Police were looking for a silver Chevrolet Monte Carlo with Virginia tags that was stolen Monday afternoon in the Franconia area. It was last seen heading toward Washington. The FBI is involved in the investigation; a federal law covers attempts to harm the family of a member of Congress. Two other incidentsThe same car was reported in two other incidents elsewhere in northern Virginia -- an attempted robbery earlier in the day and an attempted home break-in Monday, police said. Earlier Tuesday in Alexandria, a female jogger was approached by two men, one black and one white, Alexandria police spokesman John Crawford said. "They announced a robbery," he said, but the jogger screamed and ran for help. She was unhurt. The men left in an older-model sedan, and the jogger took down the license plate number, which matched the one involved in Gregg's abduction, Crawford said. "We believe these two incidents are linked," he said. At about 2 p.m. Monday, two men -- one black, one white -- attempted to pry open the screen door of a woman's home in Arlington, police spokesman Matt Martin said. The woman was inside, and when she saw what they were doing, the men asked to come inside, Martin said. The woman said no.
The men then asked the woman whether a certain person was at home, but the woman told them they had the wrong house. When the men left, the woman wrote down their car's license plate number. It matched the one involved in the Gregg abduction, Martin said. McLean, Alexandria and Arlington are Washington suburbs within a half-hour of one another. Sellers said police do not know whether Gregg was targeted because of her husband. "We have no indication whatsoever that they had any knowledge of her identity," he said. Similar incident in SeptemberPolice said it was too early to say whether an abduction in McLean on September 29 was connected to the three incidents. A woman was putting her two children in her car outside a convenience store when a man approached her, McLean police said. He ordered her into her car, pulled out a handgun, and told her to drive east and stop at a Bank of America branch on the same road as the Wachovia branch in Tuesday's incident. He ordered her into the bank while he kept one child hostage in the car. The other child was with the mother in the bank. She got money and the man ordered her to drive away. She dropped him off a short time later in the shopping plaza where Tuesday's incident took place. The suspect in the September case was described as a cleanshaven white man in his 40s standing 6 feet tall with a thin build. Sen. Gregg, a 55-year-old Republican, released a statement saying his wife's abduction was "a terrifying experience." The senator, who was traveling at the time, rushed home to be with his wife.
"Thanks to quick decisions made by Mrs. Gregg she is doing fine and out of harm's way," his statement said. The Greggs have three children, and have homes in Rye, New Hampshire, and the Washington area. Mrs. Gregg is on the six-member board of the Student Loan Marketing Association, more commonly known as "Sallie Mae," the largest lender for students. President Bush appointed her in 2001. She also is the director of the New Hampshire Task Force on Child Neglect and Abuse. Sen. Gregg's father, a former New Hampshire governor, died September 24. Gregg also was governor of New Hampshire for two two-year terms, from 1989 to 1993. CNN correspondent Patty Davis contributed to this report.
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