Kidnappers Get a Cool Victim, but No Cool Cash

Three weeks ago, one of the richest men in America was abducted from a parking garage in this wealthy New York suburb after leaving work at his $5-billion hedge fund.

The kidnappers were clearly out of their league.

Authorities said Edward Lampert’s abductors were from crime-ridden New Haven neighborhoods a world away from Greenwich. Two had drug convictions; one was an eighth-grade dropout who, according to his lawyer, cannot read or write.

The man they seized and held for ransom was a tightfisted figure with a reputation for coolness under fire and a penchant for calling the shots when it comes to money.

And the plot they hatched was B-movie quality, executed with such comic ineptitude that they used their captive’s credit cards while they were still holding him, investigators say.

“They’re like misguided soldiers of fortune,” said Michael Sherman, a well-known lawyer in Greenwich who is not involved in the case. “They seemed to be making the plan as they went along.”

After being held hostage in a motel room for just over a day, Lampert was dropped off unharmed -- and without losing a cent -- near the Greenwich police station. According to news reports, he was set free after promising his abductors $5 million in ransom.

Within days, four men were arrested in the scheme.

Except for a statement of thanks to the authorities, friends and business partners, Lampert has refused to discuss his ordeal, and his acquaintances have clammed up.

Lampert, 40, is worth an estimated $800 million, good enough for No. 288 on the Forbes list of wealthiest Americans. He built his fortune by investing in a few solid, unflashy companies like AutoNation, Office Depot and Payless Shoes after painstaking research, a technique used by his mentor, Warren Buffett.

By 28, he was part owner of the Texas Rangers baseball team along with George W. Bush, and his investors include Michael Dell of Dell Computer and media mogul David Geffen.

“What I have always wanted to do, and the reason I set up my own business, is to make the investment decisions in whatever areas I thought I understood and made sense,” Lampert told the Washington Post in 1995. “If I was the quarterback, I didn’t want the coach calling the plays.”

His strategy works: According to Institutional Investor, Lampert’s hedge funds have grown by an average of 24.5% per year since 1988, nearly double the performance of the S&P; 500.

Yet Lampert for years drove a beat-up car and lived in a rented apartment (in 1999, he bought a $20-million mansion). When his mother once complained about her 7-year-old car, he told her to take better care of it.

“Other boys his age, with the money he’s made, would spend more lavishly,” his mother, Dolores, told the Wall Street Journal with a laugh in 1991. “He’s like an old conservative man.”

The evening of Jan. 10, four young men toting a shotgun jumped him in a parking garage. He was taken to a Days Inn outside New Haven and, according to news reports, spent the next 30 hours chatting with his abductors and trying to make a deal with them.

Records in the case are sealed. But a law enforcement source who spoke on condition of anonymity said the kidnappers blindfolded Lampert, called the cell phone of a member of Lampert’s family and played a recording of his voice to confirm his captivity.

Investigators also noticed activity on his credit cards. According to news reports, the kidnappers even used plastic to buy pizza.

“They were zeroing in on these guys almost immediately,” the source said.

The alleged ringleader, Renaldo Rose, a 23-year-old former Marine, may have used the Internet to buy ski masks, handcuffs and bullet-resistant vests for the caper, the source said. News reports also said he used the Internet to research wealthy targets before settling on Lampert. Not long after Lampert’s release, three of his alleged captors were arrested, still at the motel, where authorities found a shotgun and a mask. Shemone Gordon, 23, and Devon Harris, 19, were charged under federal extortion law, which carries a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison. The third suspect is 17; details of his case are sealed.

Gordon and Harris were ordered held without bond, and their lawyers have said the two maintain their innocence.

Rose was captured Jan. 18 in Canada. He appeared in federal court in Buffalo, N.Y., on Wednesday, where he was charged with extortion and agreed to be returned to Connecticut.

Despite their apparent missteps, the kidnappers managed to breach a world where safety is often assumed.

Greenwich real estate agent David Ogilvy said many residents were initially shocked but calmed down when it turned out that Lampert was safe and the kidnappers were, in his words, “Keystone Kops.”

“It was really amateur night out,” Ogilvy said.