Costa Rica kidnap ordeal of HK wife revealed
Gangsters kidnapped the wife of a Hong Kong company manager in Central America and demanded US$500,000 (HK$3.87 million) in ransom during a four-day ordeal.
Cheng Au Shuk-chun, wife of Cheng Nai-chiu, of the Ming Wah Trading Company, was held at gunpoint before being bundled into a car by two gangsters after they grabbed her in a street near her home in the Costa Rican capital, San Jose.
Her head covered by a plastic bag and her hands tied, she was driven to a house in a village a few kilometres outside the city.
The kidnappers telephoned the Ming Wah Trading Company in Hong Kong, which sells goods including plastic toys, a few hours later and demanded the ransom.
But the company alerted Hong Kong police, who taped a second call from the kidnappers. The tape was passed to Interpol.
Police traced the kidnappers and arrested them after freeing Mrs Cheng, who was unhurt.
Mr Cheng said his Hong Kong-born wife had emigrated to Costa Rica eight years ago but had now decided to return to Hong Kong to live after her ordeal in October.
He said: 'They demanded the ransom money but I never had to pay it because police managed to free her. My wife is still suffering from the trauma.' Mr Cheng's boss, Cheng Lam-choi, director of Ming Wah Trading Company, said in a letter in this week's issue of Offbeat, the police force's newspaper, that officers in Costa Rica had continued to protect Mrs Cheng until she returned to Hong Kong.
