– says it was a case of mistaken identity
Boat builder Fabian Gonsalves who was kidnapped almost three weeks ago, walked into the Anna Regina police station yesterday morning with his wife and reported that he had been the victim of a case of mistaken identity.

Gonsalves, who was snatched on June 3, showed up with his wife, Philomena Gonsalves around 9.15 am and told police the people who took him had released him after realizing he was the wrong man.

A police press release issued yesterday quoted Gonsalves as saying that one week after he was kidnapped two men scrutinized him and said, “This is not the man we want”.

Gonsalves was abducted by three men armed with firearms from his mother-in-law’s home at Jacklow, Upper Pomeroon, Essequibo.

He told police that he was taken aboard a trawler that was moored in the Atlantic Ocean after being abducted.

There, he was kept in a locked cabin and under guard by two men armed with handguns.

It was about a week later, he told the police, that his abductors discovered that he was the wrong man.

However, Gonzales related, he was kept on the vessel until Sunday, when he was placed on board another boat and taken to Tiger Beach in the Waini District, where he was released.

There, he told the police, he met a fishing crew of four men and with their assistance, he managed to get to Paradise Jib, Essequibo Coast, from where he travelled to his home at Hampton Court. He said too that he was not ill-treated at anytime, nor was any ransom demanded for him.

Gonsalves was in a house watching television along with his mother-in-law Carol Adams and another boat-builder, Chris Williams, when two men armed with guns entered the home through an open door.
“The men held them at gunpoint and tied up Adams and Williams, after which they handcuffed Fabian Gonsalves and took him away in a boat,” police had reported. Adams and Williams managed to untie themselves and raised an alarm.

Gonsalves’ wife and children had moved to the city for security reasons shortly after, a relative had said. The relative said the kidnapping came as a shock and he could not come up with a motive why someone would want to kidnap the boat builder.

Police had launched an investigation into the abduction and spent time gathering information on the Essequibo Coast, speaking to family members and persons in the community, but did not get anywhere.