Neighbours thwart Corozal kidnapping

Two young children are still in shock tonight after an attempted kidnapping in the Corozal District. According to police, around seven-thirty on Wednesday night they were called out to an area of Corozal Town known as White Cocal where they found a crowd of people surrounding a small white car. Officers waded through the mob, opened the car door, and found five people sitting inside: thirty-four year old Alejandra Hernandez; her seventeen year old son, Kareem Hernandez; and her mother, seventy-one year old Maria Montejo, all residents of Chetumal; and two children, ages eleven and five. Turns out the Hernandezes and Montejo had gone to the home of Estevan Perez looking to collect money he allegedly owed them. But when they found out Perez wasn’t there, the three adults forced his children into the vehicle with the apparent intent of keeping them hostage until their father paid up. That’s when family members, friends, and neighbours hearing the desperate cries of the kids came to their rescue and blocked the vehicle from leaving the area. The three Mexicans were charged this afternoon in Corozal magistrate’s court with two counts of kidnapping and were remanded to Hattieville until their court date on August tenth. As to the details behind the motive, Corozal police tell News 5 that Perez had initially sold Alejandra Hernandez a van for fifteen hundred dollars but when the vehicle started giving trouble, they struck up another arrangement in which Perez would compensate Hernandez by working for her as a deliveryman. But during that time, Perez had racked up additional debts to the tune of four thousand dollars. He later stopped working for the Chetumal businesswoman but indicated he would continue to pay off the money owed. The Corozal man did pay Hernandez six hundred dollars a couple weeks ago, but when she returned for another payment on Tuesday and didn’t find Perez, she was infuriated… apparently to the point of kidnapping her former employee’s children.