“George was walking in his local mall when he suddenly got approached by an old man. The old man looked kind of confused. He asked for help, but before George could react, another man approached them. He took the old man with him. The old man seemed a bit confused. George kept following them. It looked like the man did not want to let the old man go.
George took it upon himself to confront the man. He had the feeling that there was definitely something wrong here. He even feared for the old man’s safety. George shouted to the man to stop, but the man would not listen. George’s shouting attracted even more attention.
The old man looked over his shoulder and tried to say something, but the younger man whispered something that made the old man turn pale. George did not want to cause a scene, so he just decided to follow the pair. Then something strange happened. The younger man fastened his pace.
When he walked outside, he quickly put the man in a black van and drove away. George shouted, “Call the police!” He had the feeling the old man was being kidnapped. A bystander quickly called the police, and when they heard what was going on, they immediately sent every available officer in the area to the local mall.
George was immediately questioned by the arriving officers. He was asked if he knew the old man and what happened. George could only tell the officers what he had seen because he had only just seen the man. They now started to question the other bystanders as well. One of them came forward. He had seen the old man before. This man, Jack, is one of the store owners. He had seen the old man for a few months now. This was the first good lead they had. However, there was one problem. No one seemed to recognize the younger man who took the man away.
Jack told the police officers that they could check his security cameras. This would probably lead them to the younger man. Looking at the security footage, they noticed something from that day. The younger man seemingly tried to dodge all the cameras. It looked like he knew the exact location of the cameras.
Police did a background check on the older man. Thanks to new software, they could track down the old man’s identity. When they dug into his background, both of the officers reading his file gasped. The old man is a wealthy hedge fund manager who made a fortune with stock trading. They now had a motive for the young man to kidnap the old man. It was probably to extort him.
To make sure this would not happen, they put a specialist on the bank accounts. If something happened, they could track it. In the meantime, other officers checked the cameras outside the mall. They had a clear visual of the black van. The van arrived later, which means the young man had some accomplices, and this started to look like an elaborate plan.
Thanks to the cameras outside of the mall, they could clearly see the number plate of the van. To make things even more terrible, the van was reported stolen that same morning. The van was seen on several traffic cameras, which made it easier to track it down.
Officers immediately hurried to the last seen location. But when they arrived at the location, they dropped to their knees. They had found the van. However, there was a huge problem. The van was completely burned out. There was only one solution for this; they needed George.
The officers decided to take George to the police station. He was the only one who could get a clear look at the young man. Every minute that went by, the old man was less likely to be found again. George was immediately taken to a composite drawer. George told in detail what the man looked like. This way they could get a clearer picture of who they were looking for.
When the drawing was done, they tried to match it in the database. After a few moments, something happened. There was a match. The police captain turned pale when he saw who they were looking for. This could not be him, could it? The match revealed the identity of a known felon, Marcus Lee. He was the leader of a local gang before he got thrown into prison. He got released a few months back and never reported back to his parole officer.
The police captain put everyone in the force on high alert. Everyone needed to focus on finding Marcus Lee. He was the only one who could lead them to the old man. They had a list of his known accomplices. His former driver was one of them. Dave told the officers that Marcus had recently contacted him for a job. It would be a one-time thing according to Marcus. After that, they would never see each other again. However, Dave said that he declined the offer. The officers did not believe him.
When searching Dave’s house, large stacks of cash were found. Dave had no clear explanation for these stacks. He was placed in a holding cell while his phone was cracked. If they could find Marcus’s number, they could track it. Bingo! Apparently, from the looks of things, this very morning, Marcus had left Dave a message that he needed help.
They went back to Dave, but he had a waterproof alibi. The officers urged Dave to call Marcus. There was a human life at stake. Dave agreed to call Marcus, but after trying two times, they almost gave up. Then out of nowhere, Marcus called back. Dave put him on speaker. He sounded like he was suspicious or that he had something to hide.
Marcus did not really seem keen on talking to Dave. But this convinced the officers that Dave was at least innocent. Dave kept Marcus long enough on the phone for the officers to track Marcus down. He was in a warehouse nearby. Had they finally found the old man?
The warehouse was part of a shipyard. They broke open the doors and saw a whole bunch of workers. They spotted Marcus. When he saw the police force, he did not even try to run. He looked incredibly confused. When they came to him, they took him by force. Marcus struggled a little bit, saying he did not do anything wrong. He felt like he was being attacked.
When they asked about the old man, he got even more defensive. Marcus was brought to a lineup. George was called to identify the young man who he saw that took the old man. Without hesitation, George pointed at Marcus. There was no doubt about it. Marcus had done it.
Marcus did not want to tell them more. Then the phone rang at the police office. There was a female officer on the phone telling them that she had found the old man at one of Marcus’s known addresses. They immediately rushed to the home where they indeed found a very confused-looking old man. He looked like he feared for his life. He did not want to come with the officers. They thought he must be referring to Marcus.
When the old man was seated across from Marcus, something happened. The man told the officers that he did not know Marcus. Marcus started laughing a little bit. The officers were confused. But what was going on here? The old man started crying a little bit. He told the officers he just wanted to go home.
They asked him what he was doing in Marcus’s house. The old man, Gary, told them that he was looking for his daughter, who was supposed to go out with him. Then his parole officer barged in. He told the officers to immediately release Marcus and that he had done nothing wrong.
The police captain was now totally confused. What in the world was happening here? Gary seemed to recognize the parole officer, and the police captain demanded an explanation. Were they dealing with kidnapping or was there something else going on here?
Then the parole officer started explaining. When Marcus was released from jail, he came to the parole officer to do some charity work. The parole officer put him in contact with someone at an elderly home, and Marcus could do some volunteering if he wanted to.
Marcus now finally got the time to explain his side of the story. He confessed that he knew Gary, but he did not know anything about his background, and he had no idea who he was taking care of. Gary was suffering from memory loss. This made the whole situation clear.
Marcus was Gary’s caretaker as a volunteer. However, Gary kept forgetting where he was and who Marcus was. He constantly tried to look for his daughter, whom he always visited the mall with. This actually explained the whole situation.
Gary was being taken back to the nursing home this morning by the van from the nursing home, but the car got in an accident and burned down. At that moment, Marcus lost Gary and started looking for him. Marcus went to all the places Gary often visited, like the old shipyard he used to work at.
At that moment, Marcus was being taken in by the police. Gary, in the meantime, walked to Marcus’s house because it felt familiar. He had been there a couple of times. The entire supposed kidnapping was a giant misunderstanding.
