By TONY WALL
Kidnap survivor Gloria Kong has paid tribute to the young Taiwanese boy who endured a kidnap and ransom ordeal in West Auckland this week.
"He's very brave," Ms Kong, now 32, told the Herald yesterday. Ms Kong was 14 when she was dragged at gunpoint from her family's home
at Totara, south of Oamaru, sparking a 38-hour ordeal.
The kidnappers demanded $120,000 and threatened to kill her if police were called.
Gloria was abandoned at a barn, double-bound at the ankles, inside two sacks and with a pillowcase over her head.
The pillowcase was tied tightly around her neck, and another rope wound around her body from ankles to shoulders. She was blindfolded, gagged with a sock and had cotton wool stuffed in her ears.
Police said at the time she was obviously not meant to survive. But she managed to escape after freeing one hand, and ran to a nearby house for help. She said she lost track of time but kept thinking of family and friends to keep her going.
She decided not to provoke her kidnappers in any way and tried to remember as many details as she could.
The ransom was never paid. Four people faced kidnapping charges and all were jailed, one for 11 years.
Ms Kong, who now lives in Wellington and is understood to be successful in the commercial world, said the kidnapped boy was "very brave for going through it and I hope he's fine". She did not want to comment further because she wanted to keep her own ordeal in the past.
