18-year-old Ian Grootenboer from Vught has no idea why his kidnappers were after him. He was kidnapped Thursday night at gunpoint. Five terrifying hours later, he was released at holiday park ‘t Wolfsven in Mierlo. He was told to run as fast as he could or they would shoot him. “I didn’t know I could run that fast.”
Thursday evening around ten o’clock Ian was walking near cafeteria Van Berkel in the Vlasmeersestraat in Vught when he was tapped on his back. As he turned, he looked down the barrel of a weapon.
A man in a balaclava was holding the weapon. “I was shocked and dropped my phone. Then it started screaming for me to pick up my phone. I did. Then I had to send an app to someone with the text: ‘Help’, supplemented with my location. I went to my mother and my brother. Then I had to put my phone on the floor.”
“I wanted to resist, but with a gun to your head you are powerless.”
Then a car drove up. “I was grabbed by the neck and pushed into the car,” said a shocked Ian. “I wanted to resist, but with a gun to your head you are powerless. I could have resisted. What would have happened to me then?” asks the trainee painter.
In the car, Ian got a bag over his head and was taken away. Ian can’t quite remember what happened next. “They hit me on the head, nose and ribs a number of times. I really don’t know what the intention was. They just told me to watch out, but I don’t know what for.”
“I had to run as fast as I could or they would shoot me.”
The kidnapping lasts about five hours. At three o’clock at night he was dropped off at ‘t Wolfsven in Mierlo. “I had to run as fast as I could or they would shoot me. I did. I never knew I could run so fast.”
“I first walked to the campsite, because my uncle sometimes stays there. He wasn’t there. Then I went back to the street for help. A few agents happened to arrive at the parking lot of the holiday park at that moment.”
The whole incident hit him hard. “I am very shocked and constantly on my guard. I prefer not to go outside and certainly not alone.” Ian is receiving victim support and the police are investigating.”
ALSO READ:
Boy (18) kidnapped in Vught and released the next day in Mierlo