Death Threat, Extortion Attempt Lead to Arrest

For two days last week, Russell D. Hardison and his wife, Betty, lived in fear for their lives.

On Thursday and Friday, a man left several messages on the Fillmore couple’s answering machine threatening to kill them and their son if they did not give him $20,000 in cash, Betty Hardison said.

The anonymous caller said that if by late Saturday evening Russell and Betty, 77 and 72, respectively, didn’t follow his orders and leave the money inside a shed in Saticoy, he would kill the family, said Betty Hardison.

“He threatened to kill all three of us,” she said. “When somebody threatens to kill you, you take it seriously, and since he threatened to kill all three of us, we took it really seriously.”

The Hardisons declined to identify their son.

What the caller didn’t know was that the Hardisons, members of a pioneering Ventura County ranching family, called the Ventura County Sheriff’s Department on Friday morning and reported the threats.

The Sheriff’s Department provided the cash that was used, and waited in the area until someone came to the shed to pick it up.

About 7 a.m. Sunday, deputies from the major crimes and narcotics units watched as a man took the money from the shed, located on Darling Road about one-quarter mile east of Wells Road. They moved in and arrested 40-year-old Gary William Wheat of Ventura, said Sheriff’s Capt. Larry Robertson. The money was allegedly found inside Wheat’s waistband, according to Robertson.

On Sunday night, Wheat was being held in the Ventura County Jail medical unit on suspicion of extortion, according to a jail spokeswoman. Bail was set at $250,000.

Neighbors of Wheat, who lives on Nopalito Street in Ventura, described him as a generous man who usually kept to himself. Wheat reportedly is disabled. Neighbors did not know what type of work in which Wheat was involved.

The Hardisons did not know why they were targets.

Betty Hardison said she did not know the suspect. “I wouldn’t know him if I saw him on the street.”

“He was probably looking for deep pockets,” her husband said.

Both praised the deputies for their assistance, and said the events made for a weekend they will not soon forget.

“When you’re 72 and 77, it’s a little bit of a shock when something like this happens,” Betty said.