Bristol Twp. Man Charged With Kidnapping Three People

A Bristol Township man has been charged with kidnapping three adults and holding them in an apartment.

Janap Rong Ly, 30, of the township’s Croydon section, was arraigned late Monday night before District Judge Robert Wagner on multiple charges of kidnapping; robbery; drug manufacture, delivery, or possession with intent to manufacture and deliver; terroristic threats; unlawful restraint; false imprisonment; and possession of a controlled substance.

In court papers, Bristol Township police said they were called Monday afternoon to a tobacco shop on Haines Road for a report of unwanted persons inside a nearby apartment. They arrived to find a woman and her boyfriend who reported that they had been held hostage inside their unit inside the Royal Park Apartments on Haines Road for three weeks by a man, identified as Ly. They also reported a third person, a man, was being held in the apartment.

Officers were provided with the apartment key and found the third person being held and Ly. Glass smoking pipes, digital scales, small baggies, a clear container with suspected crystal methamphetamine, and a “large stack” of cash was observed. The cash was later found to be more than $1,200, police said.

Further investigation determined there were other suspected drugs and paraphernalia in the apartment. A handwritten letter containing one of the three people’s unemployment benefits information was also located, police said.

The woman who called authorities told investigators that a man who had been staying at their apartment left and possibly took a laptop belonging to Ly, who became enraged when he discovered the laptop was missing. At that point, he threatened to kill everyone, including the couple’s cat, if he did not receive the laptop and a Louis Vuitton bag back, police said.

Ly then allegedly told the couple they could not leave their apartment and made sure they spent most of the day quietly in a rear bedroom.

The couple said they barely had food and were only allowed to leave the apartment one person at a time. If they left, they were threatened that if they did not come back right away or called authorities, the other person back at the apartment would be killed, police said.

Ly allegedly forced the male half of the couple to go to an ATM to withdraw his weekly unemployment payment and turn it over to the 30-year-old defendant.

At the police station after officers raided the apartment, the third person, the man, found inside with Ly spoke with investigators.

The man, who became emotional during his interview, relayed that he had been homeless and was victimized and kidnapped by Ly in the past. He was forced to cook for him and clean his residence or be threatened with assault or violence against his family, police said.

The man told authorities that Ly uses heroin and meth and would be awake for days at a time and acted paranoid while on meth. In addition, he reported that Ly allegedly sold drugs out of the Royal Park Apartments parking lot.

The homeless man ended up at the apartment with the couple after texting Ly about a place to stay. He said Ly would not let him leave once he arrived, even attacking him violently, including with a metal pipe, when he tried to get out. The attacks caused visible injuries, police said.

“He was told he would be killed and his mother would be killed if he tried to leave the apartment,” police wrote in court papers.

The man said Ly forced him to change his unemployment benefits to get his benefits debit card sent to the defendant’s mother’s house in Croydon, police said.

The man also told investigators that Ly forced him to snort meth while he was captive.

Ly was arraigned and sent to the Bucks County Correctional Facility on 10 percent of $500,000 bail.

Editor’s Note: All individuals arrested or charged with a crime are presumed innocent until proven guilty. The story was compiled using information from police and public court documents.

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