(Trinidad Express) Zepheniah Harripaul, who was abducted from his Chaguaramas workplace on Thursday, told his family he had been threatened and someone attempted to run his car off the road recently.
Harripaul, 33, a shift supervisor at Tucker Energy Services on the Western Main Road, Chaguaramas, was abducted around 2 a.m. on Thursday.
Police yesterday told his relatives that his abduction is being investigated.
A ransom demand has not been made for Harripaul’s safe return, his family said.
His brother, Stephen Harripaul, told the Express that Harripaul was on a shift that began at 6 p.m. on Wednesday and would have ended at 6 a.m. on Thursday.
He was told that around 2 a.m. on Thursday, a group of men drove up and spoke with security at Tucker Energy’s gate, after which they drove onto the compound where they parked outside the main building.
A Western Division senior offi¬cer told the Express that a security guard said the men told him they had come to pick up a man working there.
Harripaul said his brother was outside working with a crew, but left briefly to retrieve a flashlight from the office.
It was then that he was grabbed by the men and forced into their waiting vehicle.
Harripaul said one of the men came into the office looking for Harripaul’s keys to his Hyundai Tucson which he took and left.
As both vehicles exited the compound, Harripaul’s vehicle alarm kept going off, his brother said. Stephen Harripaul explained that if the alarm is not deactivated a particular way, it would keep going off every 30 seconds.
The man driving Harripaul’s vehicle abandoned it at the gate, got into the car he had arrived in and left.
A security guard then contacted the Carenage Police Station.
Almost run off the road
Harripaul said his brother told their mother that he had been threatened on the job “some time ago”.
He said earlier this week, Harripaul told him someone had attempted to run his vehicle off the road in the Chaguaramas area, but he did not pay much attention to the incident.
Harripaul said his brother was “no-nonsense” about his job, but was not popular with some employees.
But he pointed out that his brother also treated his workers well, giving them a $200 bonus for Christmas.
Asked if they had received any updates from the police, Harripaul said an officer would only say “we are working on it”.
Harripaul said his brother was not married and had no children.
He said he was all about going to work, getting the job done and resting at home for his next shift.