Some Louisville, Ky., police officers got the surprise of their careers when they pulled over a car with expired license plates: a man bound in the trunk.

Shawn Bloemer, 22, could hear the officers from inside the cramped space.

“I heard a voice and I could tell from his inflection of what have you that he was an officer. He came back and asked about insurance and that’s when I started kicking and punching on the hood, yelling,” Bloemer told WTSP 10 News.

Bloemer, a clerk at a local Circle K convenience store, says he was captured after his late-night shift and locked in the trunk of his own car after he discovered three people -- Brittany Elder, Trent Blye, and Joseph Davis -- trying to steal his tires. Bloemer said Blye assaulted him, along with the others.

"He started to hit me, struck me in the head, punched me in the stomach a couple of times. They shoved me headfirst into the light post," Bloemer said, according to WDRB.

The three attackers then allegedly forced Bloemer into the trunk of his vehicle with his wrists tied with a t-shirt and a towel wrapped around his head. 

"Right before they closed the trunk they said, 'This isn't personal, we need your car,'" Bloemer said.

Bloemer estimates he spent nearly three hours locked in the trunk on that August night while his kidnappers drove around. At one point, he fell unconscious.

“It was really hot. I passed out a couple times,” Bloemer said.

Around 3:30 a.m., he woke up to flashing red and blue lights he could see through a crack in the taillight. 

Officers Fred Wilson and Daniel Goldberg had initially flagged the vehicle for expired plates. But when Goldberg heard someone in the trunk while talking to the occupants, he realized this wouldn't be an ordinary traffic stop.

"At that point the officer became very much more aware, immediately called for backup," Bloemer said.

In the dash cam video, officers are seen pulling the kidnappers out of the car one by one and rescuing Bloemer from the trunk.

Police have arrested Elder, Blye and Davis, who allegedly purchased illegal drugs during their late-night joyride, according to WTSP 10 News. They are each charged with kidnapping, wanton endangerment, and theft of Bloemer’s car.

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