THOUSAND OAKS : Kidnaped Lawyer Manages to Flee

A Thousand Oaks attorney was briefly kidnaped at gunpoint near his Westlake office Thursday morning, but he was able to distract the gunman long enough to flee uninjured, a Ventura County Sheriff’s detective said.

Attorney Lindsey Wellman drove to his office in the 200 block of Westlake Boulevard about 9:30 a.m. and parked in the building’s basement parking garage, Detective Ernie Montagna said.

As Wellman walked to the elevator, a man wearing a dark blue business suit pointed a small handgun at him and ordered Wellman back to his luxury car, Montagna said.

There, Wellman began pressing buttons on the door’s combination lock and when the gunman looked away, the attorney hurried around to the other side of the car and ran toward an exit. The gunman fled toward the north end of the garage and remains at large, Montagna said.

Police are still investigating, he said.