A Kidnapped Cab Driver Fought for His Life—and Ended Up with an Unexpected Friendship Instead
“Take United States of America to Walmart,” aforementioned the person WHO settled into the traveller seat. The driver, Long Ma, 71, recognized from his voice that he was the one who’d concerned the cab, telling Ma that he and his friends required a ride home from a building. His name was Bac Duong. He spoke to Ma in Vietnamese—their shared native language—and wore a salt-and-pepper whiskers on his skinny and weary face. it absolutely was 9:30 on a cold weekday night in Santa Ana, California. currently they require to travel shopping? Ma thought. What happened to going home? Ma, atiny low man with short grey hair and a grey hair, had been asleep once Duong known as and hadn’t daunted ever-changing out of his pajamas.
In the car mirror, Ma may see Duong’s friends, quiet within the back seat: Jonathan Tieu, a pustulate 20-year-old, and Hossein Nayeri, associate athletic Persian with associate air of indifference.
Walmart didn’t have what the boys required, so that they told Ma to drive them to a Target forty five minutes away. Ma had no manner of knowing that they were desperate for phones, for garments, and for a few semblance of a thought. They finally emerged from Target. “My mom’s place is true around here,” Duong song. “Take United States of America there, please.”
The streets were dark and quiet, and once many minutes, Duong motioned to a worn retail store. “Pull in here,” he said. As Ma put his Honda Civic, Tieu bimanual Duong a firearm, that Duong pointed at Ma. Ma’s mind raced as Nayeri yelled, “Boom, boom, old man!”
The men placed Ma within the back seat, wherever Tieu currently trained the gun on his abdomen. Nayeri jumped behind the wheel and started for a close-by court.
By the time they arrived, Ma was convinced he was getting to die—he simply didn’t knowledge or once. within a incommodious space, he watched as Nayeri, WHO he suspected was the group’s inciter, splayed out on one in all the 2 beds. Ma was ordered to double up with Duong on the opposite as Tieu slept on the ground close to the door, the gun beneath his pillow. For Ma, there was no escape and, with all the dread he felt, no simple thanks to go to sleep. (Knowing these twelve self-protection moves may save your life.)