Police and troops, aided by helicopters, began a massive search today for eight-year-old Oron Yarden who was kidnapped Sunday but not released after his parents paid the IL 2 million demanded by the kidnappers. The crime is said to be she first of its kind in Israel.
The youngster, son of Penina and Amos Yarden of Tel Aviv, was last seen entering a car in the wealthy Savyon section. Witnesses said the child was summoned to the car by a khaki-clod man but were not certain whether he entered it freely or was forced. A telephone call to his parents Sunday night said the boy was safe and demanded the money. The police were informed by then but the kidnapping was kept secret to protect the boy’s safety. The kidnappers called again Tuesday with instructions.
Plainclothes police detectives followed Oron’s father to a place in the countryside near Kfar Saba where he found further instructions to drop the ransom money in an empty barrel at a roadside. He complied, but his son, who was to have been freed within a half-hour never appeared Police reported that a man dressed in black picked up the money. He was followed by detectives but eluded them. According to the police, they did not arrest the man because they still hoped the child would be released.
For that reason, the search for the kidnappers did not begin until midnight last night.
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