$50,000 ransom for daughter

Press, 28 February 1980, Page 1

$50,000 ransom for daughter

PA ' Auckland A kidnapper got' away with a $50,000 ransom from an .Auckland bank manager yesterday. In: a daring act in Landscape- Road, - Mount- Eden, the kidnapper released the bank manager's ; daughter, aged 19, in exchange for the cash.

The fugitive made off in his car. and eluded detectives who’ were preparing to pounce. The girl, who had been abducted from her Northcote home early on Tuesday morning, was unharmed.

The police have been told' that an. intruder climbed through, the .girl’s unlocked bedroom window during the night. He' ordered .the girl to r leave the house with him, , making her think he had a knife.

Wearing only her nightclothes, the victim left the

house with the kidnapper and was led to a car nearby. The pair took with them a tracksuit which had been on her bed. They drove over the Auckland Harbour Bridge. Once in the city, the kidnapper stopped the car and blindfolded the girl. After driving for several minutes, the girl told the police, the car stopped and she was taken into a house. She spent most of Tuesday in/ one room in the house. Several telephone calls were made to the girl’s anxious parents during which, according to the police, “certain demands” were made. If is believed the kidnapper demanded a lot of money from the parents in exchange for the safe return of their daughter. The officer in charge of the investigation, Detec-

tive Inspector P. J. O’Don* ovan, said the . kidnapped girl’s voice was heard during some of the telephone calls. The parents were told their daughter was all right.

It was after 5 yesterday before the kidnapper arranged a rendezvous with the girl’s father in Landscape Road. The father drove, to a spot and was parked there in his car when the kidnapper, accompanied by the blindfolded girl, arrived.

Senior detectives declined to comment on the amount of money the bank manager handed over to the kidnapper. .< Because of possible • repercussions to the victim and her family, the police declined to identify the girl or the bank for which her father works.