The "Kidnapping" was Carried Out by the Mother
The son, aged 5, was kidnapped, and the husband, eager to save his child, was about to report it to the police when the wife quickly stepped in to oppose: "If the kidnappers find out, they might harm our son's life. Let's pay the ransom instead."
Still, the husband secretly went to the police station without telling his wife, and the case was quickly solved. To everyone's surprise, the person who "kidnapped" the son turned out to be the boy's mother.
This absurd incident occurred in Mr. Fei's family, a villager from Gaqiao Town in Yinzhou District. After solving the case, the police disclosed the detailed circumstances.
By reporter Wang Bo, with contributions from Huang Jun and Chen Xiong
At around 8 PM on the evening of October 10,
Mr. Fei, a villager from Gaqiao Town in Yinzhou District, received a strange phone call while driving.
On the other end of the line, the strange man said menacingly, "Your son is in my hands. If you want to redeem your son, immediately hand over 100,000 yuan. I will contact you later. If you dare to report this to the police, I will kill him..."
Thinking it was a prank, Mr. Fei ignored it and hung up the phone. Just in case, he called his wife right away. Upon learning that their son wasn't at home, Mr. Fei asked his wife to search nearby but didn't mention the kidnapping call.
Afterward, Mr. Fei drove back home as soon as possible, continuously redialing the stranger’s number during the journey, only to find that the number was powered off.
At around 9 PM,
When Mr. Fei returned home, even before entering the door, he heard his wife shouting that she had searched everywhere but couldn't find their son. She urged him to quickly gather the money to redeem their child.
With "his son missing and the strange number unreachable," Mr. Fei was frantic and was about to report the matter to the police station.
As soon as his wife heard that her husband intended to report it, she jumped up to oppose it, saying that if the kidnappers knew about the police involvement, they might endanger their son's life. She insisted that paying the ransom would be safer.
At 9:50 PM,
Eager to save his son, Mr. Fei pretended to go out looking for his son but secretly reported the case to the police station without telling his wife.
During the reporting process, Mr. Fei stated that he was 35 years old, a native of Gaqiao in Yinzhou, and worked as a taxi driver. His wife, two years younger than him, was currently unemployed at home and loved playing cards. Their son, 5 years old, was attending kindergarten. After receiving the report, the police immediately formed a special investigation team to look into the matter.
At 10:30 PM,
The investigating officers learned from Mr. Fei that his wife, Ms. Chen, was an avid card player who had previously accumulated several ten thousand yuan in gambling debts. Her behavior after the incident was also abnormal: normally, a mother should be the most anxious if something happened to her child, yet this mother remained calm and repeatedly persuaded her husband to settle the matter privately, insisting that everything would be fine as long as they paid the 100,000 yuan.
Yao, a police officer involved in the case from Gaqiao Police Station, said that based on professional intuition, they found the boy's mother highly suspicious, so they had Mr. Fei trick his wife into coming to the police station.
Soon, Ms. Chen arrived at the police station. When questioned by the police, she became unusually agitated, shouting that it was her family's private matter and didn’t need police intervention; they could resolve it themselves as a couple.
Seeing that the child's mother insisted on not reporting it, the police felt even more curious. While stabilizing the woman, they used technical means to trace the call made by the alleged kidnapper.
At 1 AM the next morning,
Following the clues, the police found the "kidnapped" son at a relative's house in Luoyang, Zhenhai.
At 2:40 AM,
The police followed further leads and located Rong, the person who took the child, in Cixi. Realizing there was no point in hiding, Rong confessed to the entire crime. He said he was from Cixi, 43 years old, and currently unemployed. He was a friend of Ms. Chen through their shared love of playing cards, and they had a close relationship.
Recently, Ms. Chen had been short on cash and was being chased by creditors, so she conspired with him to stage this "kidnapping." She promised to give him some benefits once the plan succeeded. After taking the child, he placed him in the care of his sister in Luoyang, Zhenhai, asking her to look after the child for a few days.
Around 4 AM,
Upon learning that Rong had been arrested, Ms. Chen, the child's mother, also confessed to the entire incident. She said she owed tens of thousands of yuan in gambling debts and had repeatedly asked her husband for money, but he ignored her. Thus, she plotted with Rong to use her own son to swindle money from her husband to repay her debts.
At around 5:30 PM on October 10, taking advantage of Mr. Fei being out driving, she brought in Rong and handed over her son to him after coaxing and deceiving him. Before leaving, she specifically instructed Rong to treat the child well and buy him plenty of good food. For the sake of thorough planning, Ms. Chen also asked Rong to purchase a new SIM card and use a strange number to demand the ransom from Mr. Fei.
Currently, both Ms. Chen and Rong have been criminally detained by the police on suspicion of fraud.