Crime | Man abducts love interest to win affection

A man allegedly staged a fraudulent kidnapping attempt with the help of three other men to abduct a married former high school classmate, in the hope of making her fall in love with him, the Judiciary Police (PJ) announced yesterday.
He told the PJ that he wanted to stage a rescue so that the woman might fall in love with him. According to the PJ, the entire process cost the suspect a total of MOP600,000.
It all started a year ago or so, when the suspect met the victim again at an alumni reunion.
On February 9, the duo went for dinner at a restaurant near the Cinema Alegria and stayed there until late. The man walked the woman back to her place but both were intercepted and the woman abducted by the three accomplices. The men pushed her into a seven-seater vehicle, covered her eyes and tied her wrists together, and drove away.
Later, the suspect made a call to the victim’s phone, which was answered by the accomplices. The accomplices asked for a ransom of MOP5 million, which was lowered to MOP3 million after negotiation.
The victim was released on Estrada de Sete Tanques in Taipa, half an hour after the ransom was supposedly paid.
She was able to untie herself and reach a building management office nearby to call her husband. Not long after, the suspect arrived at the scene in his Porsche Cayenne and told the victim the ransom had been paid.
The story failed to convince the victim, who wondered how such a large sum of money could be gathered in such short time. At home, she discussed the crime with her husband and both decided to report the case to the PJ.
Among the group of kidnappers is a university student who attempted to earn some money during the special suspension of school as a result of the pneumonia outbreak, the PJ disclosed. AL