Spanish police have rescued a man who was kidnapped and bundled into the boot of a car after he managed to alert his girlfriend by sending her a photo of the vehicle’s steering wheel and a set of coordinates.
On 23 January Policía Nacional officers in the Andalucían province of Málaga received a report that a man had been kidnapped two days earlier on the promenade of the town of Sabinillas. The man had been taken by a group of men travelling in two cars who were looking for information on the whereabouts of another man who had apparently swindled them out of €30,000 (£25,000) in a drug deal.
Officers were also provided with videos of the victim, showing him face down and with a pistol at his head while he was asked where the other man was.
Unknown to his captors, however, the kidnapped man managed to contact his friends and send his girlfriend a photograph of the steering wheel logo of the car he was travelling in. He also sent coordinates that led police to a street in Torre del Mar, a town along the coast from Málaga.
“Officers then headed immediately to the location, where they found a parked car that matched the make and model of the vehicle in the victim’s photo,” the force said in a statement. “They then discovered another vehicle in the same area, which matched one of the cars used in the kidnapping in Sabinillas.”
A few hours later, police saw a man being taken from another nearby car and placed in the back of a different vehicle.
“Seeing that happen, officers began to follow the vehicle, which was finally intercepted on the A7 motorway towards Málaga,” the statement added.
“The victim, who was unharmed and in good health, was freed and four people were arrested. Fewer than 16 hours had passed between the report of the kidnapping and the rescue.”
The force said four people had been arrested on suspicion of kidnapping, belonging to a criminal organisation and illegal possession of firearms.