Willows Bank robbery and kidnapping; villager charged

Illegal weapons, robbery, and kidnapping – in Willows Bank. That’s where it all happened. At eight-fifteen p.m. in the village last Friday, twenty-nine year old taxi driver Fausto Lopez left the house of Elizabeth Romero along with seventeen year old Mary Romero. He did not go too far because he spotted barbed wire across the road. Lopez said that when he got out his vehicle to clear the road, a man armed with a sawed-off shotgun came out of the bushes, held him up and ordered him to lie face down on the ground. Lopez said his hands were tied behind his back and he was thrown in the trunk of his car. But Lopez managed to free his hands and open the trunk but that is after the kidnappers drove the car to Rancho Dolores and abandoned it. When the police searched the area, they found the items that were stolen from Lopez and Romero amounting to eight thousand, five hundred and fifteen dollars, one hundred and fifty dollars in cash and a cell phone belonging to Mary Romero. Quick police work led to nineteen year old Pedro Troches, a farmer of Willows Bank who was arrested and charged today in the Magistrate Court with eight offences including robbery and kidnapping. Troches was also charged with possession of a prohibited firearm, a sawed-off twelve gauge shotgun, and aggravated assault with a knife. Police are still looking for another suspect, Sherwin Roca who allegedly took part in the kidnapping and robbery. Magistrate Tracy Sosa denied bail to the accused and he was remanded him in custody until November sixth.