Here are a few of the weirdest kidnapping scams!
9 - Lauren Lorenzetti Lauren Lorenzetti is a
former Brazilian beauty queen and influencer who appeared to have it all. Then her house of cards
fell on top of her, exposing a decade's old secret. Lauren staged her own 2010 kidnapping
with her then-boyfriend and friends. In April 2010, Vanessa Bassani received a
phone call straight out of her nightmares. Her daughter, Lauren, had been kidnapped. First,
the would-be kidnappers wanted about $500 in ransom money for her release,
but then it was quickly upped to nearly $40,000. When Vanessa called the police, they got spooked,
demanding that the police be removed from the situation, or they'd hurt Lauren.
What Vanessa didn't know was her daughter, her friends, and her boyfriend were the ones on
the line making these demands. Lauren left when the stakes got too high and called her mom from
a nearby payphone, asking her to pick her up. Lauren went on to win the Miss Renascenca 2012 and
Miss Parana Popularidade 2013, and she thought she'd gotten away with everything. However,
police arrested Lauren for extortion over a decade later, a charge that comes with a
six-year prison term. To make matters worse, Lauren was pregnant when they took her in.
8 - Karol Sanchez Plenty of kids don't think their
parents understand them, but few rarely stage a kidnapping to get their point across. That's what
16-year-old Karol Sanchez did when she learned her parents wanted to move back to Honduras.
Karol wanted to stay in the United States to be with her boyfriend, so she arranged for two males
to abduct her while walking with her mother in the Bronx, New York. As they whisked her away,
the men pushed her mom to the ground while two more men waited in the car for a quick getaway.
The police jumped into action but couldn't find any leads. After an Amber Alert and days of news
coverage, Karol walked back onto the scene, shaken up, and turned herself in. She confessed to the
whole thing, admitting she planned it because she thought her mother was overprotective and
she wanted to spend time with her boyfriend. Karol clearly didn't think that all the way
through when she faked something so dangerous just to prove a point. She wasn't charged for her role
in the fake kidnapping but hopefully learned that young love isn't worth a criminal history.
7 - Vincent Oggero Vincent Orggero was out with some
friends when he thought he'd play a prank, but he never thought his idea of a joke would lead
to charges of filing a false police report. The 19-year-old was at a Texas restaurant,
but when it came time to pay the bill, he left the staff a terrifying surprise:
a message that said he needed help, he had been kidnapped and gave them a number to call. Stunned,
the restaurant contacted the police, and an investigation was quickly underway.
It didn't take long for police to feel suspicious. The surveillance footage showed a regular dinner
with friends, Vincent didn't appear distressed, and the group had only left 10 minutes prior.
Once the police found an address tied to one of Vincent's friends, it was only a matter
of time before they tracked him down. After a few near misses at apartments in the complex,
police finally found Vincent at a party, and he quickly confessed.
It was all a joke. Vincent just wanted to prank his friend, and it was all a big misunderstanding.
Except, Vincent admitted he knew the police would be called when the restaurant found the note.
He was slapped with charges and released on a $5,000 bond, aspiring to prank more appropriately
another day. 6 - Brandon Soules
Jobs come and go, but a criminal record can last forever. 19-year-old Brandon Soules learned that
lesson and then some when he decided to fake his own kidnapping rather than go to work.
Brandon was found gagged, roughed up, and bound by the side of the road in Coolidge,
Arizona. He told police that he'd been kidnapped by two men looking for money his father allegedly
hid in the town somewhere. They'd knocked him out and drove him around before ditching him at the
side of the road. But the video surveillance told a different story - there was none!
Despite having text messages, there was no evidence to back up Brandon's claim,
and that's when his story fell apart. It turns out Brandon did it to himself. He stuffed a
bandana in his mouth, bound his hands with his own belt, scooted around on the ground to get dirty,
and then he just waited to be found. Everything had worked according to plan
until the police started to do what they do best: investigate.
Brandon staged the entire thing to avoid going to work, but now that won't be a problem. He was
fired from the job and pleaded guilty to reporting false information to the police. What was his job,
you wonder? Could it be so bad that faking his own kidnapping was the only way to get the day off?
Brandon worked at a tire factory in Coolidge, and he probably wishes he had just called out sick.
5 - Patty Hearst Patty Hearst was a celebrity
in her own right. She's the granddaughter of publishing mogul William Randolph Hearst
and was kidnapped in 1974 by the Symbionese Liberation Army, a small extremist group in
the United States known as the SLA. Three armed strangers took the then
19-year-old from her Berkeley, California, apartment. They left her fiancé tied up in
the apartment as they carried her off blindfolded to the trunk of a car.
Three days later, the SLA called a Berkeley radio station, stating that they had Patty
as a prisoner of war and demanded the Hearst family donate $70 to every person in need who
lived from Santa Rosa to Los Angeles. The Hearst family complied, donating more than $2 million
worth of food, but the SLA wanted more. What would follow was a series of strange
occurrences where Patty participated in armed robberies and answered only to the name Tania. She
said she joined the SLA of her own volition. But when Patty was eventually caught, she backtracked,
claiming that the SLA brainwashed her. Regardless, she still had to serve time for her crimes.
This only scratches the surface of this bizarre case, so be sure to check out the full video here.
4 - Katie Sorensen Going viral can be a blessing and a curse,
and no one knows that better than Katie Sorensen. The aspiring influencer turned to Instagram
to share her story of attempted child abduction after police refused to help her.
She gained thousands of followers, millions of views, and, months later, a criminal record.
Katie said she was shopping at Michaels in Petaluma, California,
when a man and a woman followed her around the store. At one point, they even commented on how
her children looked and followed her out, only leaving after they realized they weren't alone
in the parking lot. Terrified, Katie filed a police report, but they did nothing.
That's when she turned to social media, which was the beginning of the end for
Katie. Her story changed. The couple didn't just talk to her. Instead, the man tried to
snatch her stroller. That elevated the case into an attempted abduction,
and during the investigation, it turned out that's not what happened
at all. The other couple was simply shopping, and Katie made it all up.
So who was this mystery couple? Sadie and Eddie Martinez were questioned by police,
as they admitted to being the couple shown in the photo and store surveillance footage. But they
found it funny because they had five kids. Why on earth would they try to steal Katie's? They
did grow concerned and upset that Katie would make up such a horrible story about them. No witnesses
nor footage could corroborate Katie's story. Katie was charged with giving false information
to a police officer and a police dispatcher, but the jury is still out on whether or not justice
has been served. For Sadie, she wanted Katie to be charged with a hate crime.
3 - Susan Mize In 2008,
17-year-old Susan Mize went from aspiring model to aspiring inmate when she set up her friend to
be robbed—all while painting herself as the helpless victim. It all started innocently
enough. Susan called 20-year-old Preston Barry to give her and a friend a ride from Spring,
Texas, to Houston. She even offered him $150 to do it, but as they say,
no good deed goes unpunished. Things went downhill quickly when Preston arrived.
Just as he picked Susan and her friend up, another 15-year-old male approached the car.
Preston thought he had a weapon and was afraid for his life, so he did what they told him.
The kidnappers roughed up Preston. They even took him to an ATM to get more money out.
This was where Susan's part of the story ends. After the ATM,
they dropped Susan off at home, and because she was the mastermind, she never called the police.
However, Preston's quick thinking saved his life. He told his attackers that he had more money
at home, but he quickly ran inside, locked the door, and called the police when they arrived.
In the end, Susan and her friend were charged with aggravated robbery for the plot,
and Preston learned a crucial lesson: Be careful who you trust.
2 - Karla Vasquez 32-year-old Karla Vasquez
learned the hard way that the truth is always better than lies. She cheated on her husband
and then faked her own kidnapping to cover it up. After Karla got off her shift bartending
at a local adult entertainment club, she called her husband, David, in a panic to say two men
were sitting outside their home. When he got home from work, Karla, their car, and the men
were nowhere in sight. Terrified, David called his wife, who informed him that she'd been kidnapped.
He quickly notified the police, who wasted no time looking for Karla. A few hours later, police
found her driving the car—the same car she said the kidnappers stole. Under pressure,
Karla's web of lies unraveled. She hadn't been kidnapped. She just didn't want her
husband to know she cheated on him. Karla faced charges of faking a crime,
which could carry a fine of $1,000 and up to one year in jail. Her husband obviously found out
about the infidelity, so hopefully, Karla learned her lesson that honesty, no matter how hard,
is always the best policy. 1 - Kidnapping Phone Scam
We've all gotten calls from an annoying phone scammer. According to the FBI, there's a new scam
in town, and it might be the most frightening one yet. Attackers spoof your loved one's phone number
to call and say they have been kidnapped. You'll hear someone crying and scuffling, someone that's
clearly in distress before the would-be kidnapper comes on the phone to demand money. Transfer
whatever total they tell you, and no one will get hurt. Don't, and they will hurt your loved one.
In a panic, you may be tempted to transfer the money. It seems like a no-brainer, especially
because it came up on your caller ID as their actual phone number. No matter how terrifying
it may seem, this is the latest phone scam. It’s praying on your adrenaline to override your good
sense and transfer the money without thought. Some who've fallen victim to this scam said the
person on the other end thanked them or said God bless you. If you find yourself
in this situation, try to keep calm and text your loved one. Chances are,
someone is trying to make a quick buck off you. Click to watch one of these next videos!