A trip to a CVS Pharmacy for a late-night DVD rental turned into a horror for a Gwinnett County woman who soon found herself at the mercy of a kidnapper, police say.
Carolina Lopera, 23, had been at the CVS Pharmacy at Herrington Road and Cruse Road, Atlanta, Georgia and was at the automated DVD kiosk outside when she felt something pressed against her back Sunday night, she told police officers.
She said the man, whom she did not know, warned that he had a gun and forced her back into the passenger seat of her car while he got behind the wheel and drove off.
A trip to a CVS Pharmacy for a late-night DVD rental turned into a horror for a woman who soon found herself at the mercy of a kidnapper, police say.
It was the start of 45 minutes of increasingly desperate and failed attempts to get money from the woman.
The suspect, identified as Ronald Dean Foster, first tried to get Lopera to withdraw $500 from ATMs using a bank card. After Lopera told him she didn’t have a PIN number, the suspect then tried to get her to buy drinks and cigarettes with the card and request cash back. When that didn’t work, the hapless kidnapper told Lopera he would settle for a $100 ransom.
The non-Spanish speaking suspect then allowed Spanish-speaking Lopera to call a friend nearby to arrange for the ransom. Since he wouldn’t understand what she was saying, Lopera called her boyfriend instead to tell him what was happening and he alerted the authorities.
The suspect demanded the money be left in a mailbox, so police arranged for the drop-off and were waiting in unmarked cars for Foster and Lopera when they drove up.
Foster, 45, who was taken into custody without incident and without a weapon, is charged with robbery, kidnapping, terroristic threats and theft by taking. Police say Lopera was not physically harmed during the incident.
Taken from AJC.com: 10.08.11
