Spanish police have detained a woman who faked her own
kidnapping to test whether her husband would pay ranson, sending
him a photograph of herself with bound hands and feet, police said
Monday.
The man received the photo on his mobile phone from someone
claiming to be one of the kidnappers along with a text message
demanding a ransom of 20,000 euros (26,000 dollars) for her
release, they said in a statement.
The ransom request was repeated in later text messages as well
as warnings that the man not go to police, which he ignored.
Police launched a search and spotted her car, which they
followed to a shopping mall in the town of Gandia on the
Mediterranean coast.
"The woman, who was travelling alone and was in perfect health,
was the supposed victim of the kidnapping," the police statement
said.
At first she told police that she had been released that morning
but later confessed to faking her abduction "to find out what her
husband would be willing to do for her".
In 2008 a Spanish court sentenced a woman to three-year-a-half
years in prison after finding her guilty of extortion by faking her
children's kidnapping seven times.