The call came at midnight as Audrey Tognotti and her mother strolled the Latin Quarter of Paris after a late supper. Audrey didn’t recognize the number, but she wasn’t surprised to get an international call while on vacation halfway around the world from her husband and kids. She picked up. The first thing she heard was a little girl screaming for help. Then a man’s voice: “We have your daughter.”
Audrey froze. She cried her daughter’s name — “Addy!” — and asked the caller what he wanted. “We have your Addy!” His voice was stern and carried a slight Spanish accent. “She was in the wrong place at the wrong time, and now we have her.” More screams pierced the background.
For the next two and a half hours, the caller kept Audrey on the line. He shouted commands. He threatened her daughter’s life. Not for one moment did Audrey doubt that her daughter was in grave danger. She told herself she must follow the kidnapper’s orders not to hang up until the ransom was paid and Addy safely returned. Not once did it cross her mind that the call was a hoax, an elaborate extortion scam carried out from Mexico by organized criminals armed with disposable cell phones and a list of numbers with 805 area codes.