Bizarre Day-Laborer kidnapping

LAFAYETTE -- Police arrested a 51-year-old Walnut Creek man Sunday on charges that he impersonated a police officer and kidnapped and imprisoned a man he had hired to perform manual labor at a home.

Tod Morton was booked on suspicion of kidnapping, false imprisonment, impersonating a police officer and carrying a firearm in his vehicle. He has posted $125,000 bail and been released, according to Contra Costa County Sheriff's spokesman Jimmy Lee.

Lafayette police were called to a home on Lucas Court about 11:20 a.m. Sunday on a report that a handcuffed person had run into an open garage. Officers determined that Morton had hired the 42-year-old man from outside a home improvement store in Concord, telling the victim that he would perform some work on the Lafayette home where Morton was a caretaker.

Once Morton and the victim arrived at the home, Morton told the victim he was a police officer and handcuffed him. The man managed to escape and convince a neighbor to call police.

Morton, reached by phone Tuesday, declined to comment.

Anyone with information is asked to call the Lafayette Police Department at 925-283-3680