A 31-year-old Vietnamese man, his two friends and a Taiwanese taxi driver were all arrested on Sunday in Tainan, Taiwan, for allegedly kidnapping a Vietnamese man they accused of cheating them while gambling.
The prime suspect surnamed Nguyen recently gambled and reportedly lost a lot of money to the man and his two friends, leading Nguyen to suspect cheating was involved, the Taiwan Times reported.
On January 5, Nguyen lined up two friends to take revenge on the man. The three men beat the victim with wooden clubs and their bare hands and forced him to sign five promissory notes with a combined value of NT$1.2 million (US$38,975) as compensation.
The man was then locked up in a travel agency branch in Guanmiao District, where his movement was restricted. One day later, the man managed to use his mobile and sent a text to his girlfriend asking for help. The phone also revealed his location.
By 6 pm on January 6, the man’s girlfriend filed a report to the sixth precinct of the Tainan City Government Police Bureau, which dispatched a team to rescue the kidnapped man.
Two hours later, officers arrested the three men and released their hostage, who had bruises and injuries to his face, arms, abdomen and back.
The three admitted to police they had beaten the man and were taken to the Tainan District Prosecutors’ Office to be charged.
A Taiwanese taxi driver who drove them to the premise was also arrested as an accomplice.