19 People Who Were Kidnapped (Or Almost Kidnapped) Tell Us The Terrifying Stories Of What Went Down

1. OCC112

I grew up in Pakistan. In 2009 when I was 14, I was going to the nearby store to get Pepsi. It was around 2 PM, people were taking their afternoon naps and the streets were empty. This van passes me a couple of times and I don’t think much about it. 3 minutes later I see two people get out of the van and they point a gun at me. I wasn’t really surprised or I didn’t shit my pants because I knew this was going to happen as most of my friend’s were kidnapped for ransom before. I agreed, sat down next to them. They blindfolded me and the next thing I know is that I was in a room with a TV. They treated me pretty well as long as I did what they said. One day I asked for pizza and they got me some. I spent a week in that room just watching TV and talking to the kidnappers. They told me the reason they kidnapped me is because they needed money and they couldn’t provide for their families with their current jobs. My parents paid around $20,000 and they let me go. Never saw them again and in 2010 I moved to the U.S.

2. Merriwell

I was kidnapped when I was 10.

Three men in suits convinced me they were police officers, and they had badges and told me my mother was hurt and they were going to take me to the hospital. They were super detailed. They knew my mother’s full name and the names of everyone in my family. They approached me asking, “son, can you confirm for us you are Merriwell?” And then provided the information about my family to make me feel secure.

They drove me to what ended up being just outside the city, opened the door and that’s the last I remember from right there.

I woke up in a padlocked dog cage, naked. The first 24 hours, they just kept hosing me down so I was constantly wet and crying. They would never smiled or laughed that day, and barely even spoke. Just the hose and staring.

The next day was when the rape and abuse started. They would force me from the cage, after I made it clear I wasn’t cooperating, and did things I constantly try to forget. I really don’t feel that anyone would be better off reading it.

The third and final day was when the talk of the chase started. This is when the laughing that haunts my mind started. I hear that fucking laughter every day in my head. They spray painted me red, as best they could while I was in the cage, and told me if I was nice and good then, they wouldn’t have to hurt me as bad before they started chasing me.

I finally accepted their terms and told them I was sorry for being bad, and that I loved them. It was what they had been asking me to say the entire time. The smallest of them gave me a hug, and the next thing I remember was being woken up in the back of a different car than the one they had taken me in.

The small one told me it was time for the end, and he wasn’t going to hurt me before I ran. He opened the door and I sprinted. I was in a very hilly area, but it butted up against really thick trees. They all started laughing and I heard a gun shot. I bolted for the trees and made it in before I heard them. I stayed super close to the tree line, and as soon as I thought they were all three in the trees, I snuck out back towards where we came from. I never heard them after that.

I made it to a road and found some houses. The first three doors I knocked on didn’t answer, and I know for a fact one of them was home. I saw them look at me through the window. Finally at the fourth house, a woman opened her door and I ran into her house and just started crying. The rest is very basic, getting back with family, the police investigating. No one was ever arrested, or punished. Once, about 5 years ago, I thought a guy looked like one of the three, but the report on the news was about him being killed by police after a traffic stop where he pulled a gun on the cop. So I never really got to find out any more.

3. [deleted]

I was being kidnapped while with my girlfriend in a taxi 4 days ago. We were picked up by the taxi from a bar, we were pretty drunk at bar close. Two men were in the cab. They missed our turn and started taking us the wrong direction. The guy in the passenger seat was trying to keep me calm when I started yelling at him. I said “You need to take us home, this is the wrong direction.” In a very dark tone, the passenger said “We are not taking you home,” he began to square off to the back seat possibly to pull a weapon and keep us still.

My girlfriend and I looked at each other for a moment, we opened both rear taxi doors and jumped out of the car at about 20 miles per hour. It was zero degrees outside and we were in the outer-suburbs. So there was no where to go quickly.

We were certain we’d be robbed at the least, they could have murdered me and raped & murdered her.

We have cuts and bruises from the jump but are doing just fine. The passenger chased me for a bit and I threw $20 towards him and said get the fuck away from me, it worked. We ran about 2 miles until we called the cops from a grocery store.

4. Skarlite

My dad was kidnapped when he was a kid. He was only around five at the time (1950s- earlier 1960s), so he didn’t really remember how he felt/what he was thinking.

He said that he was walking home from school along the train tracks when some guy suddenly ran up to him and dragged him into his car. The guy took my dad back to his house, and it was there my dad discovered he was a drug dealer. My dad was told that he would have to meet with his clients and sell the drugs (Because apparently the police wouldn’t suspect a little kid doing it? He’s not sure). My dad did so for about a week, when he ultimately decided to run for his life when he got the chance.

Interesting part was my grandfather didn’t care he went missing for the week.

5. susannahmia

I was almost kidnapped by a child molester when I was 8 years old.

A distant relation of my estranged father showed up out of the blue one day asking my mother if he could bring me to visit my paternal grandmother.

I had never met the man before. My mother turned him away but a few minutes later he spotted me playing in the neighbors front garden.

He called me over and started telling me about how he was my cousin while putting his arm around me and firmly steering me towards his car. Luckily the neighbor’s dogs started going crazy and I had enough sense to wiggle out from under his arm and run home.

At the time I knew that his behavior was weird and not to go with him but I didn’t fully grasp the danger enough to be all that frightened. It turns out that the guy is a complete nut job and is now a known child molester. A few years ago some of his children brought him to court for severe physical and sexual abuse.

6. Dick_Blister

We were at a small, local baseball game at a park. I was probably no older than 6. Two guys (probably in their late teens/early 20s) approached me and started “playing” with me and being my naive young self I was enjoying it. They would give me a piggyback ride or play catch with me. After a while they had gained my trust and worked me away from my father when they asked if I wanted to go around the corner from the baseball fields to the tennis courts to play “tennis”. I said “sure.” One of them took my hand and the other lead and we started walking away towards the tennis courts.

Just as were walking out of sight I hear my dad shout my name and I ran back over to him and he explained to me that I should never trust strangers.

It wasn’t until a few months back that the incident popped into my head and I had time to think about it. They had no tennis rackets. The courts were out of view of the baseball fields. They both looked like scumbags. Right by the tennis courts was miles of forest and swampland. There’s no doubt in my mind that I would have been kidnapped/raped/murdered if my father hadn’t been paying attention that day.

7. ashgnar

About two years ago, I was nineteen and walking about 1/2 mile to work from my bus stop at around nine in the morning (broad daylight). The street I was walking up was super busy with other commuters driving to work and a shitty beat up Toyota drove up and was following me super slow. He starts yelling at me saying shit like “hey sexy lady, get in my car!” I tried to ignore him, but he wasn’t going away so I told him to fuck off. This caused him to speed off and pull into an alleyway up ahead of me. I figured that was the end of it, but I had my phone ready just in case. When I got up close to the alley the guy popped out and grabbed my coat and tried to drag me to his car. I managed to push him away, ripped my coat in the process, and ran like hell towards my work.

I called 911, and the guy was back in his car following me so I gave them his license plate number and explained what happened and the operator stayed on the line with me until I got to my office. All the while this dude was following me and screaming insults at me out the window.

Cops eventually came by and arrested him, and he was charged with kidnapping in the second degree but was unfortunately found not guilty because they had ‘no solid evidence that anything occurred’. Then the cops blamed me for the way I was dressed (business casual-khakis, a button up shirt, and a pea coat for anyone who cares) and where I worked (Planned Parenthood) and said that he probably though I was a prostitute and was trying to pick me up. Fucked up thing is, he was arrested for raping and beating a woman a few years ago and is still on the loose.

8. Dankdub69

I was hitch hiking in Arizona after my car broke down on an Indian reservation and got kidnapped by 3 Indians that picked me up. They were super fucked up and hadn’t slept in days and I honestly was worried about dying. I tried to make friends with them and convinced them that we should go gambling at a casino coming up on the highway. They were down and the second they let me out I ran inside and the security wouldn’t let them follow. Only lasted about an hour or two but it was super intense. They had a gun and said they would use it

9. FuturePiePants

I was kidnapped in Thailand.

I was about 10 years old. I’m American, but was living in Japan at the time, and was in Phuket on vacation (equivalent to someone from Philly traveling to Florida for vacation.)

Usually we spent most of the time in a hotel, but this year my parents decided we were old enough to venture into the town. We were shopping in a local market when all of a sudden somebody grabbed me, I was in a van, and then a house. I stayed there for maybe a day and a half. Not even 48 hours?. I don’t really remember a whole lot in detail, I was young. I was in a living room of sorts with a middle-aged Thai dude. We played N-64 most of the time. He took phone calls occasionally. Then one day they put me back in a van and brought me back to our hotel. We left for home earlier than we were meant to.

Turns out, my dad had kidnapping insurance (his company highly encouraged it considering their employee’s propensity for travel to 3rd world countries for vacation with their families) and they paid off a very small sum for my return. The people who took me were eventually discovered and prosecuted. There was apparently a racket for abducting small white children in the 90s, with no intention of harming them, simply for the ransom money.

10. coffeenowplease

My mom grew up in India and one of her childhood friends, whose family was very wealthy, was kidnapped; a man knocked on the door carrying armfuls of laundry and her friend opened it, assuming he was a washer man returning their clothes. The clothes were chloroformed and the girl passed out. Luckily for her, the kidnappers were apparently really incompetent–she woke up a little bit later in an auto rickshaw with two men and pretended to still be unconscious, and after a little while they stopped and got out to get a snack or something, leaving her alone. She ran for it, and was much more careful about opening the door from then on.

11. [deleted]

I was really young when my estranged father took me from my family one day. I don’t remember it clearly at all. I was returned safely to my Mum. I couldn’t tell you for how long exactly, but I know it was a few months.

This is the most common type of abduction, as I understand it. My father and his immediate family – primarily his mother, planned the whole thing, including a legal smear campaign against my Mum. I no longer accept any contact from him or his family, though I did meet his mother once. She made me uncomfortable.

The real impact on my life was how scared it made my Mum. She could barely let me, or my younger sister, out of her sight. We couldn’t walk to school, we couldn’t go play in the park by ourselves. We couldn’t get our photos taken for the newspaper with the rest of the kids. She still can’t really talk about it.

12. Romans_837

9 years old, walking two blocks from my grandma’s house. Two teens in a driveway asked if I wanted to see a snake. No. Told me to get over there. (What scares me now is that without laying a finger on me, they successfully kidnapped me.) Followed them into the woods. One asked me about love and hate, peace and war…and was he crazy? Led me to a tree in the woods. Saw my chance. Ran like hell. Made it about a hundred yards before they caught up with me. Took me back to that spot. To this day I don’t know whether they were playing or not…they began praying to the devil. Put me on my knees, told me to pray to the devil…

13. ImAshleyK

I was technically kidnapped, in that I was taken from one place to another against my will. I was carjacked while driving a cab. I drove for about 5 minutes before the guy told me to pull over and then forced my passenger out. I just put the car in park and walked away. I was either going to stay and get raped/killed or walk away and get a bullet in my back, either way I was out of there. The whole ordeal didn’t last long at all but I was in survival mode. Everything was clear; I was amazingly calm when I’m usually a really emotional reactor. I keyed up my radio and talked about landmarks, which let other drivers know where I was.

14. CollegeKid16

I went to the hardware store after playing a Park District basketball game, must have been around 12 or 13. Some lady behind me in the checkout lane, with another guy (probably her husband), asks me if I play basketball. I replied “Yes” – and she then invites me to go to her car, because she has a basketball that she never uses and would like to give it to me. I politely declined and rode my bike home SO fast. Needless to say, I got a glimpse of her car and it was very shady.

15. Jayshun

I was nearly kidnapped. I was around seven walking home from school, and a man in a black BMW pulled up and asked me locations to the nearest McDonalds. After telling him he offered to take me there for a ‘treat’ of being such a good kid. I noticed something was wrong but the man had then grabbed me by my waist. Luckily my grandfather was near by and noticed, grabbed me from the mans grip and knocked the man out. Turned out he was a vicious child rapist.

16. desylid

I was legally kidnapped as a 20-year-old male by two crack heads (a white male and white female). After giving them directions and 5 bucks for gas, I mistakenly trusted them to give me a ride a couple of blocks.

They told me several times they would kill me if I didn’t comply, and they meant it. For about 20 minutes I thought I was going to die.

I was eerily calm throughout the whole ordeal. I didn’t think about family or my past at all. I was 100% focused on the situation and getting through it. Things got really hostile when the woman was taking a long time to take money out of the ATM with my card. The guy asked me asked me if there was going to be a problem, and basically repeated that he would kill me if I gave him the wrong PIN number, and I said “well yeah, it’s a Key Bank so you are going to have to pay the two dollar surcharge.”

The guy actually kind of smiled and loosened up and it was kind of implied from that point that they would not kill me as long as they got the money. He even gave me my wallet and cell phone back.

He got a 15-year sentence for a different robbery and attempted murder charge, she got 5 years for trying to kill him. She shot him with a shotgun and he lived.

17. firebirdx

I was kidnapped when I went on holiday. It was horrible, and really scary because I was in a different country, and couldn’t understand what the people who kidnapped me were saying.

Luckily, I come from a fairly wealthy family and my dad used to work with the police, I’d go so far as to say he has a very specific set of skills.

He came all the way to Eastern Europe to try and find me and my friend, who’d also been taken. Unfortunately my friend was drugged and killed, but my dad managed to find and save me just before I was sold into prostitution.

I was really, really sad and depressed about my friend, but I’ve always lived by the philosophy of making the best out of a bad situation, so I’m looking to make it in the music business now.

18. [deleted]

This happened to my friend’s cousin. She was getting out of work one night at around 10 and by her car there was an old lady. The girl asked the lady if there was anything wrong, and the woman claimed she saw a couple of guys trying to break into her car, so she came and told them she would ‘call the police’ if they didn’t go away. Then she told the girl that because of this she had missed her bus to go home and needed a ride. When they were in the car my friend’s cousin looked down at the woman’s hands and noticed they were man-hands, so she crashed her car on purpose so the police would come and get the ‘woman.’ But after the car crash the ‘woman’ ran away and when the police were searching the car they found a chefs knife and a piece of rope underneath the passenger seat. Gives me chills.

19. ezekiel2517_

I was in Paris when I was 17 with a friend when we got to her cousins apartment to start unpacking I called my dad, as I was on the phone with him three or four dudes busted in and kidnapped my friend as I watched, my dad told Me to his under the bed and to call out what I saw when they took me. I did. They took me drugged me up and sold me at a human trafficking auction. They then moved me to a large boat and then my dad busted in and saved me!!! I don’t even want to go through what happened with my mom…