The man called the police from a cellphone hidden in his sock
Photo: Index Open
Construction workers kidnap contractor for ransom
Three construction workers kidnap their contractor after they claim he failed to pay them for a few months, demand NIS 40,000 ransom; man saved after calling police from cellphone hidden in his sock
A 24-year-old construction contractor was kidnapped Sunday night by three coworkers and was held in a Tel Aviv apartment. The kidnappers, construction workers who claimed that the contractor had failed to pay them for a project, called his girlfriend and demanded that she pay a NIS 40,000 ransom.
The contractor managed to free himself before any transaction had taken place, using a cellphone hidden in his sock to call the police. He was consequently detected and released, and police arrested the three kidnappers.
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Though the abductee was not the three suspects' employer, nor the owner of the construction company, his job was to find jobs and charge money for projects.
On Sunday, the suspects, 34, 41 and 62, made an appointment with the suspect in Netanya, and upon his arrival made it clear that they were not paid NIS 40,000 they were owed, and to which they claimed they were entitled a few months ago.
The three then dragged the contractor to a sealed box on their truck and drove to Tel Aviv, where they locked him in an apartment, as one of them called his girlfriend and told her: "We kidnapped your boyfriend. If you don’t pay a NIS 40,000 ransom, we will hurt him."
As soon as she hung up, the woman called the Netanya police and reported the kidnapping. But before the police investigation managed to progress, the hostage took advantage of being unnoticed and called the police from the cellphone hidden in his sock. "I was kidnapped," he said. I'm locked in an apartment. I don’t know where I am."
The police traced the call and arrived at the apartment pretending to be the contractor's friends, who have come to play the ransom. Once in the apartment, the police arrested the suspects and let the man go, before any harm was done to him.
The kidnappers were taken to questioning at the Netanya police station and will be facing a remand hearing Monday.
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