Mother Abducted and Vehicle Stolen Near Border, Son Claims

A woman was kidnaped in San Ysidro Saturday when two men drove off in her son’s rented vehicle after assaulting him, San Diego police reported.

Police said Manuel Ruiz, 18, of Culiacan, Mexico, said he and his mother, Evangelina Ruiz Davidson, had come to San Diego County to visit a relative in Jamul. He said they rented a white 1985 Ford Bronco in Tijuana, crossed the border and stopped at a fast-food restaurant in the 700 block of San Ysidro Boulevard.

Ruiz said his 40-year-old mother waited in the Bronco while he went inside the restaurant shortly after 7 a.m. He told police that as he was returning to the vehicle five minutes later, two Latino males approached him and that one of them struck him in the side with a 3-foot steel pipe.

He told police his assailants then jumped into the Bronco and sped off, with his mother still inside. As of Saturday night, police were still searching for the victim and the vehicle.

Police spokesman Bill Robinson said the site where the incident occurred is a congregating area for illegal-alien smugglers.

“He could not provide a detailed description of the suspects,” Robinson said. “But we are treating it as a legitimate kidnaping because we have no way of disproving his story.”