Grandpa Kidnaps Granddaughter for Ransom
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"I give you three days to transfer 500,000 yuan to me, otherwise you will never see your precious daughter again." Read a message that a woman in Shanghai received from her own father.
The woman, Ms. Yuan, said that the person who sent her the message is her own biological father.
The grandpa had gone to pick up Ms. Yuan's 4-year-old daughter from school but kidnapped her instead of taking her back home. He went on to send the above message to his daughter, asking for 500,000 yuan in exchange for the daughter.
According to local news media, the 65-year-old grandfather was born into a rural family in the suburbs of Shanghai. He started gambling many years ago when he was running a company.
His family members attempted to convince him to stop the habit to no avail. He went on to blow his savings and a lump sum payment in pension on gambling and later even sold his house to service debts that he accumulated because of gambling.
He still owed a huge amount of money and creditors kept harassing him. The man then thought that the only person who could save him was his own daughter, but he knew that she would never lend him any money because of his bad habit and that is when he came up with the idea of kidnapping her daughter to extort the money from her.
On the afternoon of April 13th, he went to the kindergarten where his granddaughter studies and picked her up but did not return home with her.
Ms. Yuan told reporters that she immediatedly called her father to ask if the contents of the message was just a bad joke or he meant business, and the man told her that he meant business. He even threatened to kill the granddaughter and himself if the daughter failed to comply.
After she finished the call with her father she then called the police and provided them with all the information about him, including pictures and screenshot of the text message he sent her.
The police were able to track down the grandpa and arrested him on the same day in a rented house in Minhang District.
The granddaughter was not harmed but was frightened.
The grandpa, on the other hand, was criminally detained on suspicion of kidnapping. He has been reported to be in a state of depression at the detention center and he refuses to take medication and had gone on a hunger strike for a period of time.
After a few days, he received a letter of forgiveness from his daughter.
The case has attracted widespread attention and discussion in social media, with many netizens expressing sympathy and support for Ms. Yuan and her daughter, and expressed strong condemnation and anger towards grandpa's behavior.
References: GMW
*The opinions expressed in the article are solely those of the author.*
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