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$50 ransom demand leads to teens' arrest

That's how the three suspects tried to collect a debt the young kidnap victim owed, police say.

FORT MYERS - Three teenagers were charged with kidnapping 15-year-old boy and demanding that his father drop off a $50 ransom at a Taco Bell restaurant, police said.

Joseph Garrett, 17, turned himself in Thursday, a day after fellow suspects Samuel Aidoo, 16, and Victoria Aidoo, 15, were arrested, Fort Myers police said.

Police said the three held David Gibbs, 15, at Garrett's apartment soon after Gibbs arrived there on his own Tuesday.

Garrett demanded that Gibbs pay him $50 he owed him, police said. The teens punched Gibbs in the face and held him in the apartment at knifepoint, police said.

When Gibbs couldn't pay, they forced him to telephone his father and ask him to drop the money in a planter at the Taco Bell.

Ralph Gibbs called police, who set up undercover officers in and around the Taco Bell. The officers watched Gibbs leave the money. Soon, two people, Matt Gregory and Kelly Vinski, took the cash.

Police stopped them, and Gregory told them Garrett had sent them, promising them $10 in gas money if they picked up the cash, police said.

Police had Gregory call Garrett and arrange a meeting at a Goodwill store. Gregory and Vinski weren't charged in the kidnapping.

When police arrived at the Goodwill, they saw Aidoo standing by a trash bin. They patted him down and found a butcher knife in his sweat shirt pocket.

Garrett, who was in his nearby apartment with David Gibbs, saw police and fled, police said. David Gibbs then left the apartment.

[Last modified March 19, 2005, 01:00:09]