Woman Reportedly Kidnapped Herself to Gamble Ransom
Spanish authorities this week have apprehended a woman who they say staged her own kidnapping in an effort to extract ransom money she then used to play bingo.
The unidentified 47-year-old woman was reported missing by her husband.
The husband is not believed to have been in on the scheme. He called police in a panic on October 6 upon receiving messages on his mobile phone. Those messages were supposedly from his wife’s abductors and advised that he would need to pay a €6,000 ($7,000) ransom to secure her freedom.
The case was assigned to Mossos d’Esquadra’s elite kidnap and extortion unit.
The woman was later seen on bank surveillance safe and counting the paid ransom. She was then followed to the local bingo hall and subsequently arrested.
She was arrested that evening while in the middle of a game of bingo and charged with extortion and suspicion of reporting a fake crime.
- Jagajeet Chiba, Gambling911.com
