Friday, December 02, 2005

Kidnapping Part II

I'm one of those people who can't get away with anything, so I should have known that when I made light of a behavior as serious as kidnapping, it would turn around and bite me. Yesterday, the father of a young American man we know was kidnapped as he drove to PAP from a town about an hour away. He called his son and told him that he'd been shot more than once and thought he was bleeding to death. The kidnappers were demanding ransom of $300,000. This man and his family, including the son, have lived in Haiti for a long time (the son was raised here), working as missionaries.

A friend of ours who employs the son and is staying where we are told us about all of this. Negotiations proceeded and our friend briefed us on what was going on. Today, just a short while ago, the man was released after much less money than was originally demanded was paid. There was scariness and more goofiness, too, that we can chuckle about only because no one was killed. Apparently, no American kidnap victim has been killed. But as our friend says, you don’t want to be the first.

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