dreaming@echonyc.com

Mr. Omansky managed the building, and Mr. Schlosser and the others were very unhappy with his performance, the authorities said.

The police said Mr. Schlosser told them that the discussion took a bad turn and the men began arguing. According to the criminal complaint filed against Mr. Omansky, he punched Mr. Schlosser and hurled him on the bed. He put a knife against his neck, Mr. Schlosser told the police, and threatened to kill him.

Using duct tape, he bound Mr. Schlosser's hands and feet, and gagged and blindfolded him, warning him that he had better not try to escape because there was someone else in the apartment who would kill him, the police said.

For two hours, Mr. Omansky held Mr. Schlosser hostage, the complaint said. Then, according to the complaint, he ordered Mr. Schlosser to sign over his real estate holdings to him, and Mr. Schlosser did, in fact, sign various documents.

Next, the authorities said, Mr. Omansky had another idea. Beneath the second story of the duplex lies a crawl space. When Mr. Omansky converted the building, according to real estate people familiar with the project, he created the duplex by adding a story atop the roof. Since the roof was sloped, a level floor had to be built above the roof, which left a crawl space through which piping was run for a bathroom.

The crawl space is reached through a trapdoor in that bathroom. Officials estimated the crawl space at 20 by 20 feet and about 3 feet deep.

Once Mr. Schlosser signed the papers relinquishing his holdings, the authorities said, Mr. Omansky forced him, gagged and bound, into the crawl space and locked the door.

Fairly quickly, Mr. Schlosser was able to free himself from the duct tape, he told the police. But he could not get the trapdoor open.

Fumbling around, he located a piece of pipe. He began to tap it against the underside of the floor, hoping that someone would hear him. No one did. There was nothing to eat or drink.

Because of the shallowness of the space, Mr. Schlosser could neither stand nor sit. The police said he spent much of his imprisonment crawling back and forth, listening intently for footsteps that would mean that someone had entered the apartment. Noise might mean a savior. There was no noise.

Hour after hour, he tapped with the pipe. He listened for sound. Nothing.

Finally, he succeeded in prying open the trapdoor with the pipe. He scrambled out.

It was 5 p.m. on Tuesday. He had been beneath the floor since around 1 p.m. Monday. He called the police from the apartment and then met them outside the building. He was unshaven and disheveled. Duct tape still hung from parts of his body, the police said.

The police said they called Mr. Omansky and, accompanied by his lawyer, he turned himself in on Wednesday morning at the First Precinct station house, which serves TriBeCa. He was arraigned yesterday in Criminal Court in Manhattan on kidnapping and coercion charges, and sent to jail. Bail was set at $100,000. Mr. Omansky posted the bail and was expected to be released today.

The authorities said he told them that the whole thing was ridiculous.

Benjamin Brafman, Mr. Omansky's lawyer, issued a short statement saying, "The case will ultimately be viewed as a business dispute that should be resolved in a civil forum as opposed to the criminal court."