Background: The Performance Luxury Sport car dealership in Marysville, Ohio (Google Maps). Inset: Todd Marrs (Tri-County Regional Jail).
A man in central Ohio asked a car saleswoman to test drive a Jeep Wrangler just to abduct the woman and order her to wait while he took care of some errands, authorities say.
Todd Marrs, 51, has been charged with abduction and disrupting public services, court records reviewed by Law&Crime show. He was booked into the Tri-County Regional Jail on the morning of Jan. 4.
On Dec. 19, Marrs went to the Performance Luxury Sport car dealership in Marysville, a city around 35 miles northwest of Columbus, according to authorities. He said he wanted to test drive a Jeep Wrangler.
The defendant met with a sales associate, and they went on a drive. However, from the employee's perspective, things went awry when Marrs went a different route than usual, per reporting by Columbus-based CBS affiliate WBNS, which cited court records.
Marrs allegedly stopped the SUV at a warehouse near railroad tracks and sat there for several minutes. When the associate told him to return to the car dealership, he reportedly offered a disconcerting response: "No, now you'll sit there and wait like a good girl."
The saleswoman is said to have sought out help. She texted her co-workers and shared her location with them. She also tried to call them, the court records stated, but at this point, Marrs allegedly took her phone and threw it on the floor of the vehicle.
And Marrs apparently wasn't done. Law enforcement said he drove to a hospital in Marysville to pick up a friend and refused to drop the associate back off at her job until his errands were completed. When Marrs finally did, he did so with his friend in tow.
Marrs was arrested on Jan. 4 and given a $250,000 bond after appearing in court. He is scheduled to appear before a judge again on Jan. 29.
Court records show that he has a criminal history, having been charged with assault — though he was later convicted of attempting to commit a crime — in 2023.