FBI Rescues Kidnaped Boy and Baby Sitter

A 1-year-old boy and his baby sitter--kidnaped at knifepoint Wednesday near the child’s home in exclusive Palos Verdes Estates--were rescued Saturday morning, several hours after their alleged abductor was arrested while attempting to flee with $100,000 in ransom money, the FBI announced.

Agents said that, thanks in large part to the help of a San Pedro restaurateur, the boy, Clayton Hall Anthony, and the sitter, Kathleen Gilbeau, 56, were found about 3 a.m. Saturday in a van parked beside a vacant lot near Los Angeles International Airport.

The woman was bound, blindfolded and suffering “emotional distress,” but neither she nor the child had suffered physical harm, according to Richard T. Bretzing, special agent in charge of the FBI’s Los Angeles office. Bretzing said both victims apparently had been in the van since their abduction more than 60 hours earlier.

Farhad Rahimi Kashani, 26, was arrested about 9 p.m. Friday when he picked up two shopping bags containing the ransom money, which had been left beside a trash dumpster at a Carl’s Jr. restaurant at Century and Aviation boulevards, the FBI said.

‘No Arrest Record’

“We believe him to be an Iranian who has come to this country about five years ago,” Bretzing told a news conference at the bureau’s regional office in West Los Angeles. “We know of no previous arrest record. We believe he was acting alone.”

Bretzing said that as far as investigators had been able to determine, the kidnaping was “a random one,” with monetary gain the only motive.

“He was waiting along Palos Verdes Drive West, in the bushes along the median, for someone to happen by,” Bretzing said.

Agents said the child had been left in Gilbeau’s care Wednesday morning while his parents--Philip and Kimberly Anthony--were away from their gated, two-story home on a street called Via Boronada in Palos Verdes Estates. Philip Anthony, who has worked for the past eight years as a jury consultant with a firm named Litigation Sciences, was at his office in nearby Rolling Hills Estates.

Forced Into Van

At about 11 a.m., investigators said, Gilbeau placed the child in a stroller and walked a few hundred yards to a market. She and the child were heading back home along the center median of the street when Kashani leaped out of the bushes with a knife and forced both of them into his van, Bretzing said.

When the parents returned home to find Gilbeau and the boy missing, they called Palos Verdes Estates police.

Then, about 5:45 p.m. Wednesday, the Anthonys received the first of what was to be a series of calls from the kidnaper, according to the FBI.

“He did threaten to kill both the victims if the ransom was not paid,” Bretzing said.

The FBI said the calls were monitored, and when the kidnaper demanded that the ransom money be dropped off at the restaurant on Century Boulevard, agents staked out the location.

Kashani reportedly was arrested by FBI agents and Palos Verdes Estates police as he picked up the money. The swarthy, unshaven suspect was taken to a nearby mobile home that the FBI was using as a command center, but agents said that despite several hours of questioning, he refused to disclose the fate or whereabouts of his victims.

Fluent in Farsi

Shortly after midnight, one of the Palos Verdes officers remembered a friend--Bahman (Bob) Sanjabi, a San Pedro restaurateur who came to this country 32 years ago from Iran. Agents theorized that Sanjabi, who is fluent in the Persian-Iranian tongue of Farsi, might convince the suspect to talk. Sanjabi was summoned to the mobile home.

“The man did not raise his head up until I mentioned his first name in his native language,” Sanjabi said of the suspect. “Right away, he said ‘Hi’ in Persian. I grabbed him around the shoulders and kissed him. . . . I asked him several times if (the victims) were killed. . . .

“Finally, after 20 minutes, he said they were not killed. He said, ‘They are in my camper, all tied up.’ ”

Using a map provided by the FBI, the suspect showed investigators the location of the van, according to Sanjabi.

While agents rushed to free the victims, Sanjabi continued to chat with the suspect.

Kashani told of coming to this country eight years ago and living in Texas before moving to Southern California, Sanjabi said. The restaurateur said the suspect indicated that he had been living in the van for the past two years.

$100,000 Bail

“He told me he is desperate,” Sanjabi said. “That he has no future.”

Kashani was transferred to the Palos Verdes Estates Jail, where he was booked on suspicion of kidnaping and held in lieu of $100,000 bail. Neither the Anthonys nor Gilbeau could be reached for comment Saturday.

Sanjabi said he was taken by the FBI to the Anthony home, where the little, blond-haired boy--united a short time before with his relieved parents--was “crawling around on the floor, looking happy. . . .

“Everyone was thanking me, shaking hands,” Sanjabi said. “They were all over me.”

Times staff writer Deborah Hastings contributed to this article.