Hostage Stays Cool as Family Watches on TV

There was a big church luncheon at the Red Lion Inn in Ontario, and Kim Moxley was on her way when she glanced out the car window and saw all the police on Vineyard Avenue.

“Mom, look,” she murmured. She craned her neck. “This is close to where Bob works. I hope he’s all right.”

“I’m sure he’s fine,” her mother recalls replying from the passenger seat. Less than an hour later, that conversation would seem ironic.

Ultimately, Kim’s mother was correct: Kim’s husband survived unharmed. But as they spoke Thursday, Bob Moxley--a 26-year-old area manager for an Ontario irrigation company with one child and another on the way--was being held hostage by an armed fugitive.

Family members said Moxley’s survival was a tribute to his unflappable nature, his ability behind the wheel and to the prayers of his relatives, some of whom watched the police pursuit unfold on TV.

“We got on our knees when we heard, and the Lord took care of the situation,” said Moxley’s father, Ontario car dealer Bob Moxley Sr. “We were totally shocked. It didn’t seem real that that was my son in the truck.”

But, he added, the grace of God was supplemented by Moxley’s grace under pressure.

“Bob is not a guy who is easily provoked,” he said. “He can deal with any situation, and he did what he had to do. It was very traumatic, but he handled it well.”

Other relatives agreed.

“Bob is very calm, very together,” said his mother-in-law, Helma Vanderpol of Rancho Cucamonga. “It probably saved his life.”

Kidnaped from the warehouse where he works by a gunman fleeing the scene of an attack on a police officer, Moxley was hustled at gunpoint into his royal blue pickup. With his captor in the passenger seat, Moxley was forced to take to the freeways as police converged on the getaway car the suspect had crashed and ditched.

“It was pretty scary,” said Marisela Mota, a receptionist who watched from a nearby warehouse office as Moxley was taken hostage. Mota said she glanced out her office door just in time to see the gunman--a man in black jeans--duck out the doorway of the Ewing Irrigation Co. headquarters with Moxley in tow.

The California Highway Patrol has an office just around the corner, and the gunman had abandoned his car not far from there, Mota said, but no law enforcement officer was in sight as the man, his hand resting on a hip-holstered gun, escorted Moxley to his truck.

Neither Moxley nor his captor spoke as they climbed into Moxley’s truck. As they slowly pulled out of the parking lot and headed for the freeway, Mota’s boss dashed out a back door and called for help.

Meanwhile, Moxley drove--east on Interstate 10 to Interstate 15, then onto the 91, 55 and 22 freeways in Orange County--with squad cars and helicopters in hot pursuit. Authorities said the gunman was firing out the window throughout the chase.

Finally, the truck turned off the 22 Freeway onto the maze-like surface streets. That was where it came to rest, trapped in a cul-de-sac.

The gunman fled, firing and clambering over three back-yard fences before surrendering to police.

But Moxley and his truck had been left behind, unharmed.