Law enforcement officials in Southern California have successfully rescued a 17-year-old boy who was abducted and held hostage for four days in a motel room.
According to the Associated Press, the teenager was taken captive by three kidnappers who specifically targeting him due to his family ties.
The kidnappers reportedly demanded a ransom of $500,000 from his family, threatening harm if the payment was not made.
The kidnapping began when the suspects caused a car crash in San Bernardino, and seized the opportunity to abduct the young driver when he got out of his vehicle to inspect the damage.
Following the abduction, which was captured by a doorbell camera, the kidnappers contacted the boy’s mother.
The mother received several calls from different Mexican phone numbers over the next several days, with the criminals on the line threatening harm to her son by removing body parts, unless the ransom was paid.
Although the initial demand was $500,000, the payment was eventually reduced to $100,000. However, the mother never paid the ransom demands.
In an unsettling turn of events, the suspects recorded a video in which the teenager was forced to read from a script, which they sent to his mother.
The script placed blame for the abduction on the boy’s father for his alleged theft of unspecified property in New York.
Fortunately, law enforcement was able to locate the teenager by somehow utilizing a Facebook Marketplace posting and analyzing the doorbell camera footage that had recorded the incident.
During the rescue operation, the boy was found lying on the ground of the motel room, and a firearm was recovered at the scene.
The three suspects involved in the kidnapping have been identified as Fidel Jesús Patino Jaimes, 22, Jair Tomás Ramos Domínguez, 26, and Ezequiel Felix López, 27, all of whom hail from Santa Maria.
They have since been charged with kidnapping, which carries a potential sentence of life in prison, and are scheduled to appear in court on Monday.
