|
In This Issue...
|
|
911
|
|
|
|
|
|
Live Oak Elementary School Responds to Kidnapping
|
|
|
|
|
Live Oak Elementary School Responds to Kidnapping
By Monica Woelfel
School officials at Live Oak Elementary School gathered Tuesday, Feb. 20 to discuss the community’s concern surrounding a kidnapping that occurred the week before. The incident occurred near the school’s campus.
Live Oak Superintendent David Paine sees the incident as extortion rather than as a kidnapping.
“Fortunately, both [the victim] and her son were unhurt,” he pointed out, “and there was no weapon involved.”
The school’s administration decided to send a letter home to parents detailing exactly what took place in order to stop any rumors. The school has also arranged an informational meeting for parents.
“It’s so scary,” Paine said. “We want to make sure people know exactly what had happened.”
Paine was responding in part to some parents’ fears that kidnappers had come onto the campus and taken a child from school. That was not the case.
The incident took place Friday, Feb. 16 at around 1:30 p.m, according to Capitola Police records. A mother of a seven-year-old Live Oak Elementary School student was near a bus stop walking to pick her son up from school, Capitola detective Kai Drechsler said, when a strange man approached her.
The stranger didn’t initially threaten the woman, according to Dreschler, but she felt intimidated by his behavior. The man asked her if she wanted company while she went to get her son.
The woman told the man, “No,” Drechsler reported, but the man said, “I’ll walk with you anyway.”
Once the woman had picked up her son at school, the stranger forced her into a black Honda four-door coupe (either a Civic or an Accord). The driver of the car, another man the woman didn’t know, demanded the woman give him money. He then drove the woman, her son and the other suspect to the Bank of America in Capitola where the woman had an account.
The men forced the woman to withdraw an undisclosed amount of money from her account. Apparently unsatisfied with that amount, they drove her to her residence on 46th Avenue in Capitola where they stole more cash before fleeing.
No weapons were shown or mentioned during the incident. Nevertheless, the woman was apparently too afraid to try to alert those around her, either at the school or at the bank, of her distress.
“She just froze up,” said Drechsler.
Investigation Underway
The Capitola Police Department is in the process of reviewing surveillance tapes from the bank and has received several tips, but according to Dreschler, they don’t have any leads at the moment.
A similar incident took place in Watsonville at the end of January. In that instance, a man described as being in his 20s reportedly abducted a woman from the Freedom Boulevard Wells Fargo Bank parking lot. The suspect forced the woman to drive to another branch of the bank and go inside to withdraw money from her account.
The woman in the Watsonville case, however, was able to alert bank personnel of her danger and get safely away from the kidnapper, who fled the building. The suspect has not yet been apprehended.
“As far as we can determine,” Drechsler said of the two incidents, “it doesn’t look like they’re connected.”
While police initially suspected gang involvement, the investigation has not given any evidence of that. The investigation also does not indicate that the suspects were stalking either the victim or the school.
“We think it was just a random encounter,” Drechsler said. “The suspects spotted the victim at the bus stop. She just happened to be picking her son up at school. There’s no indication that the school was targeted or that the particular person was targeted.”
Because the case was an isolated incident, police see no reason for other area schools to take any unusual safety precautions.
Principal Wilson to Convene Mar. 7 Meeting
The Live Oak parents’ informational meeting will be held Wednesday, Mar. 7 at 6:30 p.m. at Live Oak Elementary School. The school’s principal Debbie Wilson will be present along with County Sheriff’s Sgt. Todd Liberty to discuss the incident and related safety issues.
“Parents need to know what to do if they’re approached by a stranger,” Superintendent Paine explained, “just like children need to know.”
One point Paine stressed was that parents and students need to be sure to use the designated areas for parents to pick children up after school as these areas will be supervised by school staff. F
or his part, Detective Drechsler recommended that if someone feels threatened in a public area, they should do everything possible to draw attention immediately. Also, Drechsler said, don’t give a stranger any more personal information, such as bank name or home address, than necessary.
The suspects are described as two Spanish-speaking Hispanic males, both about 5-feet 8-inches tall. The driver is estimated to be around 28 years old and of medium build. The car’s passenger is said to be 30 to 35 years old, weighing around 250 pounds, with a dark complexion and acne scars on his face.
The black Honda has a gray interior and is described as very clean both inside and out. Anyone with information on the suspects is encouraged to contact Detective Drechsler at 831-475-4242.
|
