Police say man tried to lure girls into car at shopping center
A Walkersville man has been charged with kidnapping after police said he tried to lure two girls into his vehicle at a store outside the town.
Maryland State Police arrested Gary Lee Plummer at the Dollar Tree store near Walkersville on Wednesday and charged him with driving while impaired and other traffic offenses.
Two 11-year-old girls approached troopers as they were talking to Plummer and told them that he offered to drive them home, then attempted to pull one of the girls toward his car by her shirtsleeve, according to charging documents in the case.
Plummer is charged with two counts of abducting a child under the age of 12, two counts of kidnapping, and one count each of second-degree assault, disorderly conduct, and failure to obey a lawful order.
He was held without bail after a hearing Friday in Frederick County District Court. Court records did not list an attorney to represent him.
The girls told police that they were walking near the 7-Eleven store in the Discovery Crossing Shopping Center near Walkersville when they saw Plummer driving his Ford Taurus near them and staring at one of them, according to the documents.
When they declined his offer of a ride home, they said, he grabbed one of the girls, who was on crutches, by the shirtsleeve and tried to pull her toward his car.
Plummer told the girls he wasn't a stranger because he was a Marine, according to the charging documents.
Plummer waived his right to remain silent and told the troopers that he did not know the girls, but saw them walking in the shopping center's parking lot and offered to give them a ride wherever they needed to go, according to the documents.
Plummer first came to the troopers' attention after one of them noticed him parked in a fire lane outside the shopping center's Dollar Tree store.
When one of the troopers pulled behind him and approached him, Plummer said he was waiting for someone to come out of the store, and began to argue about the parking violation, according to the documents.
After the conversation continued for several minutes, Plummer allegedly threw his wallet at one of the troopers and told him to find his identification himself.
As the trooper argued with Plummer, he smelled a strong odor of an alcoholic beverage on his breath, according to the documents.
Before he was taken to the state police barrack near Frederick, Plummer allegedly told the troopers he drank two large alcoholic beverages before driving to the shopping center.
Once at the barrack, his blood-alcohol content was measured at 0.25, according to the documents. The legal limit for driving in Maryland is .08.
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