SOUTHWEST LOS ANGELES : Kidnaped Couple Freed, Suspect Seized at Bank

A Pacific Palisades couple who had been dragged from their home and held hostage in Southwest Los Angeles were freed unharmed Thursday after a suspicious bank clerk and Los Angeles police foiled their abductors, authorities said.

The couple--who own a Culver City computer company--had been blindfolded and kidnaped from their home Wednesday night by two intruders, police said.

The kidnapers, a man and a woman, took the couple to an undisclosed location and then to an apartment building in the Hyde Park area, where they were held for more than 12 hours before their plan to extort money began to unravel, police said.

Officers said the kidnapers took the terrified executive to a Citibank at 8800 S. Sepulveda Blvd. about noon Thursday and tried to force him to withdraw several thousand dollars from his bank account.

A bank teller called police and one kidnaping suspect, a woman, was taken into custody at the bank. Her male accomplice fled in a car bearing Arizona license plates, police said.