It didn’t go very well for a young couple, he, a French national and she, a Nicaraguan, who on Thursday morning tried to kidnap a child in a Santa Ana.
It was Thursday morning. A couple leaves their home with their two children, one 2 years old and the other 4 months, when they were intercepted by a vehicle whose occupants (the couple) pretended to be OIJ agents, grabbed the 2-year-old and sped off.
According to the report by the Ministerio de Seguridad Pública, the couple used a vehicle similar that used by OIJ agents and in typical OIJ dark clothing, later finding in the vehicle handcuffs and police vests.
But the father of the small child wasn’t buying their story and gave pursuit. He chased the vehicle for almost two kilometers, who according to witnesses forced the driver to lose control and hit head-on with a parked vehicle.
The parents recovered their child, who was unhurt in the ordeal and when the couple tried to flee the scene, the group that had gathered to see the accident stopped them from fleeing until police arrived.
A number of videos were posted on social networks, showing bystanders attempting to give the couple a beating when they learned of the kidnapping attempt. In one scene, while in police custody, we can see someone smack the Frenchman a backhand slap.
The event occurred on the road known as La Chispa in Pozos de Santa Ana after 9 am.
The couple will be spending the next 3 months in preventive detention, as ordered this Friday morning by the Juzgado Penal de Turno Extraordinario in San Jose, while the OIJ and the Fiscalia investigate to make their case for a court trial.
The woman is of Nicaraguan nationality and with the last name Oporta. The identity of the Frenchman was not yet confirmed by authorities. Both had arrived in Costa Rica in July.
Authorities later learned the couple, possibly with the collaboration of third parties, had a false police checkpoint at the entrance of the Quintas don Lalo residential where the family lived.
