A 64-year-old Richmond man was arrested after police say he duct-taped his wife to a chair and left her in the basement so he could watch football upstairs without interruption.

Terry Ward faces charges of abduction and misdemeanor assault and battery against a family or household member after officers responded to the couple’s home on Sunday, October 11.

Breitbart News reported that Ward’s wife told police he bound her with tape, put her in the basement, and left her there while he watched the game in peace.

The wife said she was trapped for nearly an hour. Officers noted bruises and contusions on her arms.

Ward admitted the restraint to officers

According to the police account carried in the reporting, the responding officer recorded the wife’s statement on arrival.

The officer wrote:

"When I arrived on scene, [the wife] stated that her husband had tied her to a chair with tape in the basement,"

Ward did not deny it. The same report states he admitted the act.

The officer recorded:

"Terry stated that he did indeed tie his wife [name redacted] to a chair and place[d] her down in the basement."

Football came first, by his own account

Ward told officers why he did it. He restrained his wife so he could watch the game upstairs without interruptions.

That is the motive in the police report: not a dispute over money, not a claim of self-defense, not a medical emergency. He wanted quiet for football.

Police arrested him at the Richmond home. Prosecutors now have the abduction charge and the family-violence assault count to take forward. The wife’s name was redacted in the public account.

Domestic violence law does not carve out a sports exception. Binding an adult to a chair, moving her to a basement, and leaving her there for close to an hour is restraint, not a household joke. The bruises on her arms are the physical record of that choice.

Ward is 64. He lives in Richmond, Virginia. On that Sunday he decided his wife’s freedom was less important than an uninterrupted game. Police and the charging documents treat that decision as a crime, not a punch line.

Men who put a spouse in a chair with tape to protect their viewing habits own the consequences. The law still draws a hard line between private irritation and unlawful restraint, and it should.