MOORESVILLE, N.C. — Federal agents and the Iredell County SWAT team surrounded a Lake Norman home by land and water early Tuesday to arrest a fugitive wanted in the United Kingdom on conspiracy charges tied to kidnapping, blackmail and false imprisonment.
Neighbors said they heard officers, at about 4:30 a.m., use a bullhorn for Philip James Obrien to come out of the lakefront home along Surfside Lane in Mooresville.
“It’s very scary just to see that,” said Kheya Dembin, a neighbor. “I moved here because it’s a nice quiet place.”
Federal marshals and agents with the Drug Enforcement Agency came to the home looking for Obrien.
The arrest was in connection to a 2009 conviction of Obrien in the U.K. involving conspiracy charges related to kidnapping, blackmail and false imprisonment, according to court documents.
A neighbor said there were several other people inside the home at the time.
Channel 9 confirmed authorities also executed a search at a second home nearby along Stutts Road in connection with the case.
Law enforcement said the home where Obrien was arrested was an Airbnb.
Neighbor Colleen Fresh watched police for more than five hours from her front window.
“We would like to find a way where we could get an agreement from everybody in the neighborhood not to have Airbnb’s or rentals because it’s not an apartment complex,” Fresh said.
Obrien made an initial appearance in federal court in Charlotte.
It’s not known if he is still in the U.S. or back in the U.K.
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