By HANNAH BALDOCK
A bungled attempt by kidnappers in Argentina to ransom the corpse of a businessman's father descended into black comedy after the criminals emptied the wrong grave.
The kidnappers broke into the unguarded cemetery in the small town of Gualeguay, in Entre Rios province, to
snatch the body which they planned to ransom.
When they rang Pablo Ramon Campostrini, owner of a well-known local construction materials yard to demand money in exchange for the remains of his father, he asked them to wait while he rushed to the cemetery to check out their story.
He was relieved to find the grave of his father, Lorenzo Antonio, untouched. Then he saw that the vault containing the remains of his grandfather, Pablo Lorenzo, who founded the family construction materials yard at the beginning of the century, his grandmother and great grandparents was empty.
When the criminals called again, the shopkeeper told them of their mistake and received a torrent of verbal abuse before they hung up.
The stolen remains were found hours later by the police three blocks from the cemetery in a rubbish bag. Two men and two minors were arrested on Saturday near Gualeguay and charged with desecration of a grave, which carries a five-year sentence. They could not be charged with kidnapping for ransom as they had not demanded a specific sum of money.
The bodysnatching incident is the latest in a wave of express kidnappings in Argentina where amateur criminals snatch victims for a matter of hours with a ransom priced low for quick delivery. Crime in the country has skyrocketed since the economy crashed in 2001, leaving one in six unemployed and one in two living in poverty.
There were 207 kidnappings in the first six months of 2003, often of humble targets sowing terror amongst ordinary Argentines that they or a family member could be next.
- INDEPENDENT
