2 Recovered in Dramatic Kidnap Plot

A kidnapped mother and daughter were rescued and a suspect was under arrest Friday in what police described as an elaborate extortion plot that included a fake bomb, a demand for money from a car dealership and a police surveillance operation that spanned the city.

Sylvia Antoun, 41, and her 12-year-old daughter were found handcuffed in a restroom at a storage facility in the San Fernando Valley about 9:30 a.m. Friday after being forced from their home a day earlier.

Police said they found the pair after arresting Kaveh Kamyab, 40. He was booked on suspicion of kidnapping for ransom and is being held on $1 million bail at a Los Angeles Police Department jail.

The case began to unfold Thursday morning when Sylvia Antoun’s husband, Jean, walked into his office at Felix Chevrolet near USC, where he works as the general manager. He was wearing a vest that he thought contained a bomb and a transmitting device that would broadcast his every word to his kidnappers.

Not daring to speak, Jean Antoun frantically scribbled a note telling Darryl Holter, an executive at the firm that owns the dealership, that three kidnappers had pushed their way into his Woodland Hills home shortly after dawn Thursday and taken his family hostage at gunpoint. He said the assailants ordered him to don the vest, go to the dealership and demand $200,000.

Holter called police, the dealership was evacuated and the search began.

Detectives said they are focusing on a business dispute and civil lawsuit between Kamyab, who owns a small car-rental agency, and Antoun, 40.

Officers and witnesses gave the following account of what happened:

Kamyab and others who remain at large and have not been identified allegedly drove up to the Antoun home in Woodland Hills about 6:30 a.m. and banged on the door.

Antoun told police that when he answered the door, the three pushed their way in, first pretending to be police officers and then pulling a gun, threatening Antoun and his family.

He claimed the kidnappers forced him to put on the tan hunter’s vest, telling him it would explode and his family would be killed if he did not get to the dealership and demand the money. They allegedly told him a microphone on the vest would pick up his conversations and a transmitter would broadcast them to where the kidnappers were listening.

About 10 a.m. Thursday, Antoun, wearing the vest, walked into the dealership at 3330 S. Figueroa St., across from the USC campus. Learning that Holter was out, Antoun contacted him by phone.

“I have to see you right away,” Antoun said, according to police.

Holter said he would get to the office in 15 to 20 minutes.

“No, I need to see you right now!” Antoun said.

Holter was there in five minutes.

Grabbing a pencil and a piece of paper, Antoun furiously scribbled a note telling what had happened. Thinking he might be overheard by the kidnappers, Antoun tried to carry on an inconsequential conversation at the same time, Holter said.

“We were having a conversation about cars,” Holter said. “But I was looking at this piece of paper that had this alarming information -- like, ‘My wife and daughter are being held hostage, they put explosives on me, they want $200,000.’

“As our eyes are looking at each other and I’m looking at the note, I kept thinking about his wife and daughter ... and what to do next.”

Holter called police. Arriving units cordoned off the area and bomb-squad personnel quickly determined that the vest didn’t contain a bomb. Police said the vest contained a microphone, but it was not attached to a transmitter.

Officers immediately went to the Antoun home, which they found empty. A check with the daughter’s school revealed she had not showed up for classes Thursday. The family’s Mercedes sedan also was missing.

Antoun told officers that the car was equipped with a tracking device. Officers called the vehicle-tracking company’s offices in Irving, Texas, but for several hours its satellite hookups were unable to pick up any signal.

Finally, around 1 p.m., the vehicle tracker picked up a signal. The car was heading north on Laurel Canyon Boulevard in the San Fernando Valley.

Police set up a mobile command post near Felix Chevrolet and began tracking the progress of the car.

The Mercedes pulled into a mall parking lot and parked. Officers, careful to stay out of sight, closed in, but by the time they got there, the Mercedes was empty.

Moments later, a sport utility vehicle pulled into the parking slot next to the Mercedes and the driver got out. He reached into the Mercedes, grabbed what looked like a student’s book bag, got back into the SUV and drove off, followed discreetly by police.

The SUV stopped at a restaurant and the driver went inside. After about an hour, Kamyab allegedly got into the SUV and drove away. Detectives are not sure if Kamyab was the same man they had seen earlier in the SUV.

Kamyab began a meandering drive of several hours, wandering from the Valley through downtown Los Angeles and back to the Valley, police said.

The SUV eventually stopped at a rental storage facility at 13020 San Fernando Road in Lake View Terrace. Kamyab allegedly looked at a rental compartment for several minutes, got back in the SUV and drove off. While some officers followed the SUV, others checked the compartment, finding nothing.

Kamyab drove to a hotel in the Valley and went to a room he had rented there. At 8:30 p.m., officers used a ruse to get him out of the room and detained him. They then searched his room.

Over the next hour, detectives questioned him repeatedly about the whereabouts of Sylvia Antoun and her daughter, but Kamyab refused to say anything, according to officials. Officers began retracing their steps, looking for clues.

At 1:30 p.m. Friday, they began checking around the storage facility compartment and found the woman and girl in a restroom in a nearby unit at the rear of the business. Both were in good physical condition.

Police officials said they found in Kamyab’s hotel room a copy of a lawsuit, filed by Kamyab. In it, the suspect said that he and Antoun had struck a deal in which Kamyab agreed to buy his cars from Felix and Antoun agreed to send customers needing rental cars to Kamyab’s agency.

Kamyab complained that Antoun had reneged on the deal.