Kidnappers Release Calabasas Boy

Sheriff’s deputies were searching Thursday for the kidnappers of a 5-year-old Calabasas boy who was reunited with his parents after a harrowing one-day ordeal.

The boy, who wasn’t harmed, was dropped off by his abductors Wednesday night at a Costco store parking lot in Oxnard, a night after he was snatched from his home, investigators said. Sheriff’s deputies and FBI agents retrieved the child and the $200,000 ransom the kidnappers demanded.

“The child was visibly shaken by this event but he was returned safely,” said Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Deputy Bruce Thomas. The family was reunited with their son at the department’s Lost Hills substation.

Two men broke into the family’s house in the 4200 block of Temma Court--in an exclusive gated community protected by security guards--about 8 p.m. Tuesday, Thomas said. Authorities would not say how the men entered the area, known as Oak Creek Estates.

Wearing ski masks and wielding handguns, the two men grabbed the boy while his parents were at home, authorities said. Investigators wouldn’t comment on whether the parents were threatened or saw the kidnappers.

The parents called authorities.

The parents received a phone call the same night and were told to pay $200,000 for the child’s return, investigators said.

Negotiations continued through the night and the kidnappers determined the drop-off point would be a McDonald’s restaurant in the city of Industry, Thomas said. But the abductors tried to stay one step ahead of investigators by changing the meeting location several times.

Finally, authorities learned the boy had been dropped off at the Costco on East Ventura Boulevard in Oxnard. Investigators wouldn’t comment on whether the ransom money exchanged hands.

Residents in this community of 27,000 were stunned by the incident.

“It’s sickening to hear that this happened,” said Dan Huncke, who runs the city’s Tennis and Swim Center, where hundreds of kids play every summer. “Any time there is something like this, you have to revisit your policies to ensure it doesn’t happen at your own facility or your own home.”

About the same time the boy was being freed, a disgruntled employee took his manager hostage at a baby store in Calabasas Center shopping mall. He held the manager for two hours before surrendering to authorities.

City Councilman James Bozajian said serious crimes are unusual for the city.

“It’s disconcerting to know there were two violent incidents within a short time frame,” he said. “We just don’t see violent crime here. That’s why both of these things are a shock to us.”

*

Times staff writer Sue Fox contributed to this story.