Local Travelers Kidnapped and Robbed
in South America
by Janet Lan and Judy Silberstein
( November 14, 2002
) Local residents traveling to South America beware:
violent crime is rampant and visitors to and from the
United States are being targeted. Colombia, country
of origin for many local residents and employees, is
of particular concern. This week, a Colombian national
who often works in Larchmont returned to Bogotá
for a funeral and fell victim to a kidnap for ransom
scheme. However, last year, a Larchmont resident was
kidnapped and robbed while traveling in La Paz, Bolivia.
Duval Serna was accosted in the Bogotá airport
on Sunday, November 10 by a group of very well dressed
women, according to his sister-in-law, Liliana Serna.
The group first incapacitated him by spraying him with
a drug-laced powder, and then robbed him of all his
money and luggage. In addition, they required him to
contact relatives to pay an $8,000 ransom. Told that
her husband would be murdered if she did not comply,
Serna’s wife wired the funds from the United States.
The good news is the kidnappers released Duval Serna
on Tuesday and he is now back in this country. The bad
news is the victim continues to suffer physical, psychological,
and financial trauma.
On June 8, 2001 a young Larchmont man was abducted
near a bus station in La Paz, Bolivia by a man claiming
to be a police officer. The “officer” forced
him and another “victim” into a car, drove
them to a quiet spot, and relieved them of their airline
tickets, bankcards and passports for a brief “review.”
All documents and bankcards were immediately returned
to the owners. The pair were then driven to an ATM and
required to insert their bankcards into the ATM but
no money was withdrawn at that time.
Back in the car, the “officer” accused
the other “victim” of drug possession and
threatened to arrest the Larchmonter as an associate
of the drug possessor unless he revealed his bank PIN
number. Feeling he had no alternative, the American
revealed the number.
In this case, the good news was that the bogus police
put the Larchmont man into a taxi and sent him back
to the bus station. The bad news was discovered only
later. Terrified and eager to leave Bolivia, the victim
hopped a bus to Cuzco, Peru where he found that a total
of $1600 had been taken from his accounts. Apparently,
it took only that brief review period for the kidnappers
to duplicate the bankcard.
According to the US State Department, the above experiences
are not isolated. The
Consular Travel Warning alerts visitors to Colombia
and other South American countries of the various criminal
dangers they might encounter. The alert mentions “Criminals
sometimes use the drug "scopolamine" to incapacitate
tourists in order to rob them.” It also mentions
scams by bogus police officers and reports of 18 American
citizens kidnapped in the last two years.
Janet Lan,
MD, has lived in Larchmont for over 25 years.
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