Woman Abducted at Knifepoint from Department Store Car Park
A 40 year-old woman was abducted at knifepoint from a department store car park in Xinyi District, Taipei City, yesterday evening, and held for more than three hours before being rescued by police.
A woman named Wang was having dinner with a friend at around 6:30pm, when she went to the B4 level car park to retrieve something from her car.
When Ms Wang opened the door of the two-door BMW sports car, a man approached her from behind and put a knife to her buttocks, threatening to stab her in “important places” if she did not cooperate.
The 43 year-old suspect, named Hsieh, then took the woman in her car, and forced Ms Wang to hand over her ATM cards and reveal the pin codes. Hsieh drove to two locations where he withdrew a total of NT$115,000 from ATMs, before taking Wang to a motel in Xinzhuang District.
At some point en route, Ms Wang managed to text a call for help to her friend, who alerted police.
After taking her phone and disconnecting the motel room’s telephone, Hsieh went to Wang’s vehicle to wipe away his fingerprints. However, while he was away, Wang reconnected the phone and called the front desk.
Police, who had already traced her location to Xinzhuang via Wang’s phone, received a call from motel staff at around 10:00pm.
Police officers rushed to the motel, rescued Wang, and arrested the suspect.
Hsieh has previous criminal records for deprivation of liberty.
Investigators accessed security camera footage which showed that Hsieh had been loitering in the car park waiting for a random victim.
Hsieh admitted that he had committed the crime due to economic pressure. Hsieh was employed as an airport driver for a car rental company, however, business has not been so good lately. Hsieh had to support his wife and daughter who lived in China to the tune of NT$30,000 per month.
Hsieh was handed over to the Taipei District Prosecutor’s Office at 2:00pm this afternoon, June 2, to face charges including robbery, and deprivation of liberty.
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