Kidnapping

Press, 22 July 1980, Page 6

Kidnapping

PA Auckland A Papatoetoe woman was kidnapped at a bus stop yesterday morning, but later released when she persuaded her abductors a $5OOO ransom could not be met. The young woman, whom the police would not identify, left home about 9.30 a.m. to walk to a bus stop. She noticed a van following her. As she waited at the bus stop the van pulled up and she was asked if she wanted a lift. She declined. A man jumped out of the van and pulled her into the . rear. He blindfolded her and - drove round for half an hour 1

to disorientate her. Soon after 10 a.m. the van stopped and the woman was forced to telephone her home, which she shares with her boyfriend and his parents. She was forced to tell her boyfriend she had been kidnapped and that the kidnappers wanted $5OOO by 2 p.rn. The family and the police waited until 4.45 p.m„ when the woman telephoned her home to say she had been “dropped off at the back of Mission Bay.” Detective Senior-Sergeant J. R. Hughes said the police were treating the report as “a major crime.”