Mother abducted from parking lot

Police have arrested three men for kidnapping a woman as she returned to her car at a supermarket parking lot in Pudong New Area, local media reported Thursday.

The three suspects were identified as a man surnamed Sha, 37, from Anhui Province, and two unnamed 24-year-olds from Henan province and Chongqing Municipality, according to a report in the Shanghai Morning Post.

Police said they stole a cellphone and an undisclosed amount of cash from their victim, a 42-year-old local woman surnamed Sun, then drugged her and left her alone and unconscious in her car.

The three suspects ambushed Sun around 7 pm Monday after following her back to her black Mercedes-Benz outside at the Carrefour store on Gaoqing Road, where she had bought gifts for her two children, the report said. As soon as she opened the car door, the men descended on her and dragged her into the backseat.

Sun said that one of the men sat on her face to stop her from crying out and held a knife to her throat, the Oriental Morning Post reported. They gagged and blindfolded her, then drove her car from the store. Sun pleaded for them to let her go, telling them that she was a mother, but they only told her to stay quiet if she wanted to see her children again.

They forced her to hand over her bank cards and tell them the passwords. They then forced her to drink a mixture of alcohol and sleeping pills.

Sun woke up around 3 am the next day and discovered she was in the Gubei area of Changning district.

Unable to call the police, Sun drove back home, striking guardrails on the road several times because of her frayed nerves, the Shanghai Morning Post reported. When she arrived home, she saw that her car had a flat tire.

Police said Sun reported the kidnapping at 3:11 am. They later arrested the three suspects in Kunshan, Jiangsu Province.

Police did not disclose how or when the three were arrested.

The suspects had planned the kidnapping in advance, said Qiao Yan, a press officer with the Pudong New Area Public Security Bureau. Qiao refused to provide further details.