Area men arrested in extortion attempt

A Newport Beach man pleaded not guilty Friday to charges that he and a Huntington Beach man tried to extort money from a woman for the return of her cellphone, Newport Beach police said.

Karl William Parrott, 21, of Newport Beach and Anthony Joseph Farragh, 22, of Huntington Beach were arrested Wednesday at South Coast Plaza after a police sting at Borders bookstore.

The woman’s cellphone was stolen April 25 from her Ferrari Spider, which was parked in an underground garage in the 6000 block of Residencia in Newport Beach, police said. Then, on Tuesday, the woman got an e-mail message threatening to release information from the cellphone unless she paid $3,000 by 3 p.m. Wednesday.

She was directed to go to South Coast Plaza, where she would be contacted 30 minutes before the drop-off time and told where to leave the cash, police said. At South Coast Plaza, Newport Beach police detectives saw Parrott and Farragh in the Apple store at 3 p.m., where they were sending the woman e-mails to direct her to a bookstore, Det. Kirk Jacobi said.

The woman was told to leave the money at Borders in the book “Naked” by humorist David Sedaris, Jacobi said. Instead, detectives left a package there and arrested the two men after they picked it up. Parrott’s bail was set at $250,000, and a court date for Farragh, who is out on bail, should be scheduled within 30 days.

— Alicia Robinson