KIDNAPPED

Over the past five years Europe has imported, from countries like Venezuela, Colombia and Mexico, a style of abduction known as an express kidnap. These abductions don't usually last more than one day and are characterised by violence. Each year in Europe there are 3,000,000 home raids, one every 10 seconds. In over thirty percent of cases, the family is at home when the raid occurs. The fusion of these two crimes has resulted in a new form of criminal assault in which the robbers not only ransack the houses they break into but also kidnap the family for short periods of time. Family members are then forced to hand over as much money as possible to the assailants. On very few occasions do such attacks end without serious injury. Kidnapped is the story of one of these attacks.