An Albany landlord fed up with a COVID-19 eviction moratorium is accused of kidnapping his two tenants and leaving them at a cemetery early Sunday morning, a report said.
Shawn Douglas, 48, allegedly tied up the tenants and covered their faces with pillowcases during the gunpoint attack, the Albany Times Union reported, citing police records and law enforcement sources.
Two other suspects may have assisted in the kidnapping from Douglas’s home, the report said.
The two tenants — a 21-year-old woman and a 32-year-old man — were targeted while they were asleep.
The victims told police they were first taken to a motel, before being dumped in a rural cemetery about 35 miles outside Albany.
The woman managed to free herself and seek help from a nearby home, the report said.
Sources told the newspaper that Douglas was frustrated at his inability to remove tenants due to a COVID-19 order that bans evictions until at least May.
Douglas was charged with kidnapping. He was held on $50,000 bond at his Monday arraignment.
