Kidnapped man was ready to die
HAVING endured more than 10 hours of mental torture, the victim of an alleged kidnapping mentally prepared himself to die.
Words could not describe how relieved the 54-year-old Feilding man felt when the three men who held him captive at gunpoint overnight on Tuesday released him instead, and he was able to see his family again.
‘‘It felt like an eternity,’’ he said yesterday. ‘‘I’m still pretty stressed out right now. I was totally intimidated and scared. I felt violated and was shaking like a leaf.
‘‘Towards the end of the night ... I was basically saying to myself that if you’re going to do it, then do it. I can’t take it any more . . . I can either die or go home. I just wanted out of the whole situation.’’
One man has been arrested and two more are still being hunted by police in connection with the incident, which happened between 8.30pm on Tuesday and 6.45am on Wednesday.
The man arrested after armed police raids on two Feilding properties on Wednesday, 33-year-old mechanic Peter James Ross, has been charged with threatening to kill, discharging a firearm to intimidate, and kidnapping.
The victim spoke to The Dominion Post on the condition that he not be named. ‘‘I’m very afraid of retaliation at the moment,’’ he said.
He declined to discuss certain details about what went on that night while two of his alleged kidnappers were still at large, although he did confirm one of the men fired a shotgun to frighten him.
He described the experience as humiliating and said he feared for his life.
He was not physically harmed despite his captors threatening numerous acts of violence throughout the night.
‘‘In the end, I don’t think they wanted to show any visible markings. That’s what I felt.’’
He was allowed a few brief periods of sleep but he could not do so because of constant anxiety attacks. He believed he was held captive because one of the alleged kidnappers, who lived down the street, mistakenly ‘‘got it into his head’’ that he had tipped off police about an earlier assault.
‘‘So, in their unreal world, I was a nark or a squealer . . . it was basically just a minor thing made into a major thing.’’
He knew who his kidnappers were and they made no attempt to cover their faces during the ordeal, he said.
Detective Sergeant Kevin Anstis, of Feilding, said one of the men still being sought was Colin Smith, 30.
The third man’s identity was not known, but he was described as tall, part-maori, in his late 20s to early 30s with dark hair.