An eighteen-year-old girl was yesterday forcefully taken from her Brickdam workplace to a city hotel by the reputed wife of a man she is reportedly involved with, but quick action by co-workers and the police resulted in her rescue just over an hour later.
The man at the centre of the drama was arrested at the Church Street hotel and he along with the abductor, who is the mother of his four children, remained in police custody last evening.
Police said in a statement yesterday that around 11:30 hrs, the teenager was abducted by a woman from her workplace in Brickdam and taken to a hotel in Church Street, also in Georgetown.
Acting promptly on the report and information received, the release said, the police went to the hotel where they found the teen and her abductor.
The woman was arrested and will be charged for court today. While the release made no mention of the man, Crime Chief Seelall Persaud confirmed that he was in custody, but could not say to what extent he was involved. He added that he didn’t have much information as the investigation was still in progress.
According to the reports, the abductor went to the Brickdam location where the girl has been working as a cashier for the last month and requested to have a word with her. She reportedly told the woman that she was working and would speak to her when she had a break. The woman who had her son, averaged to be about seven years old with her, sat and waited for about an hour.
When the teenager subsequently indicated to the woman that she was ready to speak but the woman requested that they go outside. Once outside, the woman shoved the girl into a waiting silver grey taxi, which sped off.
One eyewitness recalled seeing the woman who she described as “tall and strapping” shoving the small-framed girl into the car. The teen was heard saying “No, no, no!” but not loud enough to cause alarm.
The eyewitness also recalled seeing when the woman entered the building with a young boy. She said that about an hour later she saw the same woman holding the teenaged girl, but thought they were related.
She only realized that something was amiss when she saw the two women struggling and something fall from the woman’s head.
The eyewitness said that after the car sped off an alarm was raised and the security personnel at the location contacted the police who responded promptly.
“She didn’t even scream but de guard heard her saying ‘no no no’ but like it [the abduction] caught her off guard,” the eyewitness added.
This newspaper was told that following the abduction, a call was placed to the last number recorded on the teen’s cellular phone which was left at her work station along with her handbag.
The man who answered it after getting the description of the woman confirmed that it was his reputed wife.
The man then subsequently sent a text message to the phone saying that the woman was at the hotel. This was apparently after the two women became involved in a struggle outside his hotel room.
Employees at the hotel said the man had been staying there for about two weeks and they were under the impression that he was a foreigner. They said they had never seen the abductor there prior to yesterday.
When Stabroek News arrived at the hotel, the police were already there. The child was later sent away alone in a taxi.
After some 30 minutes, the woman, her reputed husband and the visibly embarrassed teenager, exited surrounded by detectives.
The teen, her head bowed, left the area with her company’s chief security officer while the man and the woman were taken away by the police.
