Valentine Tryst Ends in Kidnaping
An intended Valentine’s Day celebration apparently turned into an attempted kidnaping that was foiled when Mexican police found two California youths bound and gagged in a Tijuana home, a police spokesman said Saturday.
After receiving an anonymous tip that two bodies had been deposited in an eastern Tijuana home, Mexican police arrived to find two teen-age boys tied up and alive. Police also found a small arsenal that included nine rifles, six AK-47 assault rifles, nine handguns, nine gas bombs, and almost 40 fully loaded cartridge clips.
The youths, 18 and 19, from Huntington Park, told police they had planned to rendezvous in Tijuana with two U.S. girls Thursday morning to celebrate Valentine’s Day, said San Diego Police spokesman Bill Robinson. Instead, the boys told police, while walking in the River Zone area of Tijuana, they were kidnaped at gunpoint by six men in a late-model Ford van with California license plates.
The boys, whose identities have not been released, said that their kidnapers demanded $1 million.
In addition to the weapons, police found an assortment of military gear and a small cache of marijuana. The incident is under investigation.
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