With employees like these, who needs enemies?
Garth Brooks' ex-wife managed to escape injury Monday night after being kidnapped at gunpoint by a worker on her farm outside Tulsa, Oklahoma.
Sandy Brooks was briefly taken hostage by Quintine Cornelius Harper after cooperating with local authorities to facilitate in his arrest.
Harper, whose exact age is unknown but believed to be in the mid-20s, had been working on Brooks' Owasso, Oklahoma, farm and staying in an apartment located in the property's barn. Unbeknownst to Brooks, however, he was also a wanted man who last week failed to show up in court on an embezzlement case, leading a judge to issue a warrant for his arrest.
Rogers County Undersheriff Barry Lamb says that when a local bail bondsman showed up at the farm Monday night looking to arrest Harper, the man panicked, pointed a gun at Brooks, and ordered her to drive him away. After going a few miles, Brooks stopped the car and managed to flee into a nearby convenience store.
Police apprehended Harper shortly thereafter as he attempted to escape through a field. He was charged with kidnapping for extortion and is currently being held in Tulsa County Jail on the additional charges of pointing a firearm, possession of a firearm by a felon, as well as that initial embezzlement count.
Sandy Brooks, née Mahl, tied the knot with her country superstar husband in 1986. The couple were together nearly 15 years before divorcing in 2000. Garth and Sandy have remained unusually close, living on neighboring estates in the Tulsa suburb.
"The River" singer recently admitted on The Oprah Winfrey Show that he asked for Sandy's blessing before asking his current wife, fellow country hit-maker Trisha Yearwood, to marry him.
Garth and Sandy Brooks also have three children together, though none were present at the time of her kidnapping.