A Chinese Man Kidnapped His Own Granddaughter & Asked For $72K Ransom

A Man In China Kidnapped His Own Granddaughter & Asked For $72K Ransom To Continue Gambling

A Shanghai man was sentenced to prison for kidnapping his own granddaughter so he could maintain his gambling addiction with the ransom money.

The kidnapping — orchestrated by a 65-year-old man identified only by his surname, Yuan — was first reported by the Shanghai Law and Rule Journal. The legal news outlet didn’t specify when the incident occurred but wrote on April 18 that Yuan had just started serving his prison sentence.

Yuan kicked off his plan by picking up his four-year-old granddaughter from her kindergarten and taking her out to eat and shop without her mother’s knowledge, the Journal reported. The girl’s mother then arrived at the school and realized her daughter was missing. She received a message from Yuan demanding $72,000, according to the Journal.

 

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“Take out 500,000 yuan in three days, or you’ll never see your precious daughter again!” Yuan told his daughter, per the Journal. She called Yuan to persuade him to give up on the plot but failed to sway him, the outlet reported.

Yuan was arrested that evening after his daughter reported him to the police, and he was charged with extortion and sent to the Xinshou Prison, a facility in Shanghai, per the Journal.

He protested the charges in court, saying the kidnapping should be considered a family dispute and not a crime, per the Journal. Chinese courts can designate some crimes within families — including domestic violence — as family affairs.

The Journal did not specify the length of Yuan’s sentence, but cited police reports saying that he pleaded not guilty to the charges.