Kidnaping Foiled as Deputies Rush Payoff Site

The kidnaping of a Bellflower woman was foiled when deputies accompanied a man to the payoff site, a sheriff’s deputy said Monday.

Lissett Arevalo, 21, was new to the neighborhood and got lost while on a walk, said Deputy Benita Hinojos. Arevalo approached a man at a gas station and asked for help, then gave the man her home phone number. The man told her he would help, and told her to lie down in an office at his station, Hinojos said.

Hinojos said that the man then took Arevalo to a house, told her to go inside, and then locked the door behind her.

Mauricio Arevalo got part of the money before phoning Lakewood sheriff’s deputies, who then monitored a phone call from the alleged kidnapers.

“Deputies converged on the four men who were holding Lissett . . . and placed them under arrest,” Hinojos said. Arevalo was found unharmed and all four men, believed to be illegal immigrants, were being held at the sheriff’s Lakewood station.