By Mike Morris
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Gwinnett County police said Friday that two women who were found tied up along Pleasant Hill Road late Thursday night were believed to be escorts who were robbed after meeting potential customers, and their cases fit a pattern of similar escort robberies stretching back to April.
Just before midnight, an officer was flagged down by a woman standing in the median of Pleasant Hill Road near Corley Place, about a mile east of I-85, her legs bound with zip ties, according to Gwinnett police Cpl. E.J. Ritter.
The female told the officer she was approached by a man at the Chevron station on Pleasant Hill Road near I-85 who asked her for a ride home, Ritter said.
The woman drove the man to a home in the 1200 block of Pleasant Hill Road that turned out to be vacant.
"Once there, the male ordered her out of the car and to the ground," Ritter said. "He threatened to ‘tase' her if she did not comply."
After binding her hands and feet, the man ransacked her purse and left the area in the victim's car.
While checking the vacant house where the woman was assaulted, officers heard another woman yelling for help from inside the home, according to Ritter. They entered the house and found a second woman, also bound with zip ties, lying on the floor.
The second woman told police that she was dropped off at the house by a friend to "meet with someone for a hair appointment," Ritter said.
"As she approached the house, she was pulled inside and restrained with zip ties," he said. That woman was taken to Gwinnett Medical Center for treatment of minor injuries that she received during the assault. Police initially said the women had been bound with tape.
Ritter said that a police investigator "realized that this same scenario fit a robbery trend that occurred in the City of Lilburn and an unincorporated area of Lawrenceville during April." The trend consisted of female escorts arranging meetings at locations that turned out to be vacant apartments or homes and being robbed by one or two males, he said.
Most of the victims, including the two from Thursday night, "have been less than forthcoming with investigators," Ritter said. "Investigators believe that there have been many more incidents that have gone unreported."
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