The police have started looking into the alleged kidnapping of a woman dentist by automatic rifle-wielding men who blocked her van Wednesday morning.
The victim, however, said that she was freed unharmed by her captors who had obviously mistaken her for someone else. They also gave back the keys to her van, her cell phone although they took her bag and other valuables.
Mary Agnes Joyce Valdez, a resident of Valenzuela City, was with her husband when she reported her kidnapping at the Quezon City Police District (QCPD) headquarters in Camp Karingal around 1 p.m. Wednesday.
She told QCPD anticar theft head Superintendent Froilan Uy that she was on her way to her clinic in Muñoz, Quezon City, at 8 a.m. Wednesday in her Toyota Revo when six to seven heavily armed men blocked her path near Muñoz Market in San Francisco del Monte.
One of the men took over the wheel of her van while the others fired a warning shot to dissuade potential pursuers before getting into the victim’s vehicle.
The sound of gunfire, however, attracted the attention of operatives of the QCPD Del Monte station who started looking for its source.
At around 9 a.m., Valdez and her captors arrived at the corner of Katipunan Avenue and P. Tuazon Street in Project 4, Quezon City. According to her, she and her captors transferred to another vehicle but before they drove away, some of the armed men fired upon her van which was later discovered by policemen from a nearby station.
Valdez said that while she was with her abductors, they repeatedly asked her about a black bag. When she told them she had no idea what they were talking about, they started asking her if she had Chinese blood.
Uy theorized that the suspects probably mistook Valdez for someone else and released her after they realized their mistake.