Deputies converge on Montecito home over kidnapping scam
Deputies converged on a Montecito residence Saturday afternoon for what turned out to be a kidnapping scam, according to the Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Department.
About 4:20 p.m., deputies were dispatched to the 1900 block of Tollis Avenue for a possible hostage situation, Santa Barbara County sheriff’s spokeswoman Kelley Hoover said. She said the U.S. Embassy in Paris had reported that a Montecito woman visiting family in France had been contacted by an unknown caller claiming that her husband and two children were being held hostage.
According to Hoover, the call with a ransom demand apparently came from her husband’s cellphone.
“The wife called the U.S. Embassy in France, which then contacted the Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Office,” she said.
The sheriff’s SWAT team was deployed to the home, Hoover said, and neighborhood streets were blocked off.
At the same time, she said, the husband received a similar call reporting that his wife was being held hostage for ransom.
“During his attempt to get to the bank to wire money to the caller, he came into contact with a Santa Barbara police officer who then contacted the Sheriff’s Office,” Hoover said.
“It was soon determined that all the family members were accounted for, and that the call was an attempt to extort money from the family.”
The couple’s identities were not released.
The case is under investigation by the Sheriff’s Criminal Investigations Division.
Noozhawk executive editor Tom Bolton can be reached at tbolton@noozhawk.com. Follow Noozhawk on Twitter: @noozhawk, @NoozhawkNews and @NoozhawkBiz. Connect with Noozhawk on Facebook.
This story was originally published October 2, 2016 at 4:15 PM with the headline "Deputies converge on Montecito home over kidnapping scam."