Bavarian pensioners turn to kidnapping (News Feature)

By Helen Maguire Jun 24, 2009, 16:44 GMT

Traunstein, Germany - Germany has been shocked by a bizarre pair of kidnappings in recent months - both allegedly carried out by pensioners.

In the most recent case, four elderly Bavarians last week confessed to abducting a businessman, in an apparent attempt to recoup millions of dollars lost in the global financial crisis.

The two German couples plus an American, all aged between 60 and 79, have been charged with kidnapping after allegedly holding the American businessman in a cellar for four days in an attempt to recover 2.4 million euros (3.3 million dollars) of foreign investments.

The incident began on Tuesday last week, when two of the elderly men allegedly assaulted the American businessman at his apartment in the town of Speyer, south of Frankfurt.

They allegedly gagged and bound the man, aged 56, and bundled him into the boot of their car, driving him almost 500 kilometres to their home.

Once there, they are accused of locking him in the cellar of a house for four days and threatened to kill him if he didn't return the invested funds.

The pensioners refused to believe the victim's claim that the money was irretrievable, and their alleged assault left him with two broken ribs.

After a failed escape attempt during a cigarette break, his captors eventually allowed the man to make a phone call, supposedly to release the funds. Instead, the victim was able to alert a friend who in turn contacted the police.

The man was rescued in a dramatic police operation, as officers stormed the house on Saturday morning. All five alleged captors were arrested, and admitted to the crime during lengthy interrogations on Sunday.

Kidnapping carries a maximum prison sentence of up to 15 years in Germany.

In the previous incident last month, a 66-year-old man and his 59-year-old wife kidnapped an 83-year old retired notary, after years of legal wrangling over the foreclosure of a plot of land in the town of Starnberg, south of Munich.

A special police unit finally freed the 83-year-old man from the couple's cellar, after he phoned his daughter to state the couple's demands, and she in turn contacted the police.