FBI: Suspect arrested in payday lender robberies

COLUMBUS (AP) — Police have arrested a man suspected of robbing central Ohio payday lenders and sexually assaulting employees at gunpoint, the FBI said Saturday.

FBI agents and a Columbus-based SWAT team arrested Charles R. Harris Saturday at a motel in the Columbus suburb of Grove City, said FBI Special Agent Harry Trombitas.

Harris, 20, was charged with two counts of aggravated robbery, two counts of kidnapping and one count of rape. Authorities say they found three firearms in his motel room.

Harris was taken to Franklin County Jail. Trombitas did not know whether he had a lawyer.

The suspect entered the businesses, jumped over counters and robbed employees at gunpoint, Trombitas said. Afterward, he forced employees into back areas of businesses and sexually assaulted them, Trombitas said.

“Usually a guy wants to rob a business and get as much money as he can, and get out,” Trombitas said. “For somebody to literally spend 10 or 15 minutes in a business after he’s robbed it and sexually assault someone is highly, highly unusual.”

Payday lenders that were robbed include Advance America Cash Advance businesses in Columbus and Upper Arlington, National Cash Advance locations in Upper Arlington and Reynoldsburg and a First National Cash Advance business in Canal Winchester.

Three payday lenders were robbed Dec. 29, while the other crimes were committed Dec. 23 and 24.

The robber used the butt of his gun to strike one employee in the head because the employee wasn’t moving fast enough, Trombitas said.

The FBI’s Violent Crime Task Force helped local authorities with the investigation.

Payday lenders were the focus of contentious pre-election campaigning last year. Ohio voters on Nov. 4 approved a new law that cuts the average annual percentage rate lenders can charge from 391 percent to 28 percent and limits the number of loans a customer can take to four per year. It is among the strictest laws in the country.

A borrower taking out a payday loan site writes a check, and the company gives the person cash, minus a fee, and agrees not to cash the check until his or her payday.