Many fans know that Nathan Roth, father of David Lee Roth was the subject of an attempted kidnapping in 1987. Here is a clip from the Howard Stern interview where Dave discusses it, and then after that are 2 news articles detailing the events.



APRIL 1987
KIDNAPPING ATTMEPT ON NATHAN ROTH


DLR: Somebody tried to kidnap my father with a gun not terribly long ago.
HS: Is that right?
DLR: Yeah, you buy the land, you get the Indians and not all the Indians are friendly.
HS: Right, right...
DLR: A few things like that happen to you and you simmer way down.
HS: You mean they actually went to his house and tried to abduct him?
DLR: Yeah, you know, walked into his office.
HS: For ransom or something?
DLR: You bet. Yeah, and the guy got killed in a shootout about two weeks later.
HS: What do you mean he got killed in a shootout?
DLR: He got shot in Highland Park. He had a shootout with the police.
HS: For something else?
DLR: No, no, the police were chasing him.
HS: Really?
DLR: Oh yeah.
HS: The guy who tried to kidnap your father was killed over that?
DLR: Yes, he was.
HS: That's a fascinating story.
HS: How did the cops catch this guy who was trying to get your father?
DLR: They tracked him down. Evidently they had a little bit of history on him. They tracked him down and threw him in the Pasadena lockup. He stayed there for six or seven nights. When he was coming out of the jail to be transported to central a couple of his buddies busted him out. Stole the cop's guns, busted him out and they caught up to them about five days later. He died under a Toyota.
HS: Well, good for him. That's good. What a happy ending. You should write a song about that.
DLR: Well, you know. You wanted to know what happens in-between albums.


Los Angeles County
Kidnaper Pulls Gun, Escapes From Court
April 14, 1987|ASHLEY DUNN | Times Staff Writer


A man serving three consecutive life sentences for kidnapping pulled a hidden pistol on a guard during a court appearance Monday and escaped from the Superior Court building in Pasadena after unlocking two security doors.

Danny Angel Vega, 26, escaped at about 9:15 a.m. and was whisked away by two accomplices who were waiting in a blue 1979 Toyota pickup truck parked across the street, Sheriff's Department spokesman David Tellez said.

Vega, who had been in custody at the Los Angeles County Jail since August, 1985, was taken to Pasadena for a pretrial hearing in connection with charges that he threatened to kill the father of rock star David Lee Roth unless he was paid $25,000, Deputy Dist. Atty. Jeffrey Semow said.

Tellez said Sheriff's Department officials do not know how Vega managed to get the .25-caliber pistol into the courthouse's lockup area because he had been searched before leaving County Jail Monday morning and again just before entering the Pasadena facility.

Once at the courthouse, Vega was separated from the other prisoners and placed in a locked interview room with his legs chained together, Tellez said.

After a few minutes in the interview room, Vega complained of feeling sick and asked Deputy Roberta Rhodes, the only officer in the area, to take him to the bathroom, Tellez said.

Once the room was unlocked, Vega drew the pistol and, after a brief struggle, overpowered Rhodes and threw her into the interview room, Tellez said.
Rhodes, a 10-year veteran of the department, was only slightly bruised, he said.

Vega managed to unlock two steel security doors blocking him from freedom and "hobbled out to the parking lot," where a passer-by spotted him jumping into the pickup truck--still chained and wearing his blue County Jail jump suit, Tellez said.

Tellez refused to explain how Vega could unlock the security doors but said, "He's been in the interview room regularly. All he has is time to sit there and watch deputies go in and out."
Three Counts Vega was convicted in 1985 of three counts of robbery and three counts of kidnaping, Deputy Dist. Atty. Robert Carney said.

In each of the cases, which occurred in 1983, Vega had gone to a car dealer or person trying to sell a car and asked for a test drive, Carney said. During the test drive, Vega would pull a gun and steal the car, he said.

Vega was arrested but was released for a short time in 1985 after posting $100,000 bail, Carney said.

During his time out of jail, Semow said, Vega was involved in an extortion attempt in which he posed as a hit man who threatened to kill his victim unless he was paid off.

His victim in the extortion plot was Dr. Nathan H. Roth of San Marino, who managed to escape and call police, Carney said. The Monday hearing involved this case.

Vega was arrested again in August, 1985, and has been in County Jail since then, he said. Vega is also facing kidnaping charges in Los Angeles Superior Court for another incident, Semow said.

Semow said court records list several addresses for Vega, the most recent in Monterey Park.

Pasadena Escapee Is Killed by L.A. Officers
April 15, 1987|ASHLEY DUNN and ERIC MALNIC | Times Staff Writers


A convict who escaped from the Pasadena Superior Court Building was shot to death Tuesday by Los Angeles police officers when they found him hiding under a house in the Mt. Washington area.
Danny Angel Vega, 26, once described by authorities as a "risk to the world," was serving three consecutive life sentences for kidnaping. He had escaped from the prisoner lockup at the Superior Court building Monday morning after brandishing a .25-caliber pistol, knocking down a guard and unlocking two steel security doors. He fled in leg irons to a pickup truck waiting across the street, police said.
The hunt for Vega ended about 10 a.m. in a burst of gunfire after he pointed a weapon at officers who discovered him under a house in the 3400 block of Glenalbyn Drive, police said.
An intense manhunt began at 7 a.m. after a resident saw a man sleeping in a dark blue Toyota pickup truck in the 500 block of Vista Gloriosa Drive, said Police Department spokesman Lt. Dan Cooke.

The resident called a private security firm, Blue Shield Patrol, which sent a guard to the scene. When the guard rapped on the truck window, Vega pointed a pistol at him. Vega took the guard's .357-Magnum pistol and ran, said police spokesman Bob Nimtz.

The guard chased Vega through the neighborhood, then called for help.

The manhunt disrupted the normally quiet residential area northeast of downtown Los Angeles. Dozens of officers, a helicopter and canine units were called to the area.
"I was just getting ready to go to work, and the first thing I saw was a man running around with a gun in his hand," said resident Josephine Palafox.

The search went on for more than two hours and, a police official said, "We were just about ready to call the search off" when the dogs discovered Vega hiding under the home of Robert Landry.
Landry said he heard shots, looked out the window and saw a police officer pulling his dog back. Then, 30 seconds to a minute later, he heard more shots.

Police said that after the dog went into the crawl space, the dog's handler saw Vega reach for a revolver. The officer fired three times, wounding Vega. Two more officers peering under the house saw "Vega moving and, fearing that he was about to shoot," fired four times, police said.

Authorities are trying to determine how Vega got a gun into the lockup facility, as well as the identities of two men who witnesses said were waiting for him in the truck. The truck was registered to a County Jail chaplain, Robert Alanis, who told investigators he had loaned it to an acquaintance of Vega, a sheriff's spokesman said. Alanis is not a suspect, police said.

Vega's death ends a criminal career that included numerous arrests over the last nine years for burglary, extortion, kidnaping, robbery, car theft, illegal possession of a firearm and forgery.
Started Young

He was first arrested at 17 when he was caught with a set of metal knuckles he was going to use to beat up his lover's husband, according to court documents.

At the time of his escape Monday, Vega was serving three life sentences for kidnaping in connection with a car theft scheme in which he test-drove expensive cars and then stole them by threatening the salesman or owner riding with him.

Vega's parole officer, Barry J. Nidorf, described him in a 1986 parole report as a "one-man crime wave."
"He has acted as a predator who regards society as his hunting ground," Nidorf wrote. "Incarceration is necessary to protect society from the defendant."
When Vega escaped Monday, he was waiting to appear at a pretrial hearing in Pasadena in connection with a scheme to extort money by posing as a hit-man and demanding money to spare his victims' lives.

One of his victims was rock star David Lee Roth's father, Dr. Nathan Roth of San Marino.
Vega had been in a secure interview room at the courthouse. After feigning illness, he convinced a deputy to permit him to go to the bathroom. Vega then pulled a pistol, subdued Deputy Roberta Rhodes and unlocked two security doors from a main control panel, authorities said.

Nimtz said Vega had been to the lockup so many times "he could see the controls and knew how they worked."