A New Zealand man claims he was kidnapped during his holiday in Bali and forced to gamble away some $2000.
The kiwi’s wife went to the New Zealand Herald with his story, which the newspaper published this week. The man himself was apparently “too traumatized to talk,” according to the newspaper.
The man, on holiday in Bali, was sitting on a bench when a local sat down next to him and started chatting him up, telling him about his sister headed to New Zealand and asked him to join him the car to tell her what it’s like there.
“My husband just thought, being a really nice guy, that it was fine,” his wife said, as quoted by the Herald.
But once he got in the car, it became clear it wasn’t friendly advice the man was after.
“The doors got shut and he got locked in and then he was driven away,” the wife said.
From there, the wife says her husband was taken to a property with a locked gate, sat down, and not allowed to leave.
“He tried to do what he was told because he was obviously quite scared by that stage,” his wife said.
“He had no idea what was coming. He didn’t think he was going to get out of it alive. He thought it was going to be over. They didn’t say anything like that, but there was just too much going on.”
Which is why the New Zealander didn’t resist when made to play cards at the house and bet real cash, says the wife. When he ran out of money, he was taken to an ATM, forced to swipe his card and drain his bank account.
“He just tried to do everything to get out of it at this stage because he was really terrified. He swiped his card and they just took out every last bit of money.”
Four-and-a-half hours laters the kiwi was sent back to his hotel in a taxi and handed a cellphone and told by his “captors” that they would be in touch.
The New Zealand Embassy in Jakarta was contacted over the incident and advised the man to file a police report and get back to New Zealand immediately, according to the wife.
A New Zealand Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade spokesman confirmed with the Herald that the embassy in Jakarta had been contacted for consular assistance.
A similar scam in 2011 was reported, where a West Australian couple was conned out of $18,000 when forced to play blackjack in a locked compound and had to withdraw money to keep betting.
