Story By:  Ana Marjanovic, Sub-Editor:  Joseph Golder, Agency: Central European News

A grandmother who organised the terrifying kidnapping of her teenage granddaughter to try and warn her to change her lifestyle has been let off with a warning.

Local media report the unnamed 71-year-old grandmother organised the kidnapping of the granddaughter, aged 19, because she was worried she had fallen in with the wrong crowd since moving to the coastal city of Split from the small town of Senj, both in Croatia, a year ago.

The unnamed grandmother wanted to teach the 19-year-old that there are bad people in the world who could hurt her, according to reports, and wanted the kidnapping to be terrifying but not to see the girl injured.

The plan was to kidnap the girl at a party and involved seven participants, including an unnamed 44-year-old police officer from the Lika-Senj Police Department in Croatia, her unnamed business partner, an unnamed former football player who was at the party (the inside man) and three others, who have not been named either.

The plan was then implemented when three masked gangsters broke into the flat where the party was being held and ‘kidnapped’ the unnamed teenager and her 20-year-old best friend, along with three others, including the former footballer, 21, on 1st February.

All five were tied up with plastic ties and put into a rented van waiting in the street. They were then taken to the village of Klis, some 23 kilometres from Split, where the three other ‘victims’ were dropped off and the girl and her best friend were kept in the van.

They were then driven to a quarry near the village of Dicmo and dropped off. Reports state the ‘kidnappers’ drove away and planned to return in 15 minutes to tell the girls the truth but a security guard at a quarry saw the girls and called the police in the meantime.

An investigation was launched into unlawful deprivation of liberty and restriction of freedom of movement but after the cops discovered the stunt had been organised by the grandmother the case was dropped with no arrests made.

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