Castellón business owner freed after 'virtual kidnap' in México
Friday, December 13, 2013 @ 7:41 PM
A BUSINESSMAN from Castellón who fell victim to a so-called 'virtual kidnapping' in México has been freed.
A new form of abduction on the rise, which involves luring the victim by telephone calls or internet and then leaving them in isolation whilst the captors leave the scene, in this case the unnamed professional received a call in his hotel room from a man purporting to be from the Mexican Department of Security who claimed that a major police operation was about to take place at his accommodation and advised him to leave the complex immediately, buy a Mexican mobile phone and move to another hotel where the police force had booked him a room.
The business owner, who works in the tile industry in the eastern Spanish province and regularly travels to México, went to the hotel near where he was staying in Monterrey as instructed and found himself locked in a room.
Next, the kidnappers rang his firm and ordered his co-director to stump up 100,000 euros for his release and to guarantee he would make it out of captivity alive.
According to the victim, he did not realise it was an abduction at first, and thought it was merely a case of fraud.
His co-director called the Guardia Civil, who notified their specialist abduction and extortion team, contacted the Mexican authorities and the victim's family.
The business owner was held locked in the room for 10 hours, but his captors were elsewhere and in constant contact with him by telephone and made him think he was being watched constantly – even though they had left the area.
Police from Spain then contacted him to say his life was not in danger and instructed him how to leave the hotel and head to a safe and secret place where the Mexican authorities would take over his protection.
Read more at thinkSPAIN.com