An Australian traveler has shared a harrowing account of her dream vacation to Italy turning into a nightmare when she was allegedly kidnapped twice within hours by two different men. Stephanie, a 36-year-old executive from Melbourne, was visiting Europe with friends last October. After her friends flew out, she stayed behind to explore Italy's €1-house programs and kiteboarding in Lo Stagnone, near Marsala in Sicily.
First Kidnapping: A Kiteboarding Meet-Up Turns Sinister
While staying in the town, Stephanie joined a meet-up with fellow kiteboarders. Trusting the group, she got into a car driven by a foreign expat. He sped away from the gathering, ignoring her pleas to stop. “I got into the car, and he starts driving. We go 300 meters, 400 meters; and he says, ‘let’s see if we can get this car to 160,’” she told news.com.au. “And I’m like, ‘Sorry, what?’ He starts driving faster and faster, and I’m like, ‘No, please don’t. I want to get out.’”
As the car reached speeds on narrow Sicilian roads, Stephanie began screaming and begging, but the driver only accelerated. She fell silent and texted her location to her kiteboard instructor. The driver's friend in the front passenger seat seemed confused, asking if everyone was coming back to the driver's place. The driver replied, “No, absolutely not, no one’s coming.” After traveling about 12 kilometers (7 miles), the car entered a gated compound. Stephanie checked the door, found it unlocked, and jumped out, running until she found a hiding spot.
Second Kidnapping: A Security Guard's Betrayal
After running for a couple of kilometers, Stephanie reached a quiet town and spotted a security guard's car with warning lights. She approached the guard and used a translation app to explain her ordeal. He agreed to drive her back to her accommodation and even called his boss to inform him. However, he pulled over into an alleyway and typed on her phone: “What are you going to do for me for driving you home?” Stephanie again fled, running into a vineyard.
She walked toward her hotel, hiding whenever she saw headlights, and stopped at vending machines to buy drinks so the transactions could be tracked if needed. She eventually made it back to her room and “cried all the next day.” The kiteboarding crew was “beside themselves” when they learned of her ordeal.
Warning to Other Travelers
Stephanie wants her experience to serve as a warning. “It’s absolutely not an Italian thing,” she said, noting that the first kidnapper was a European expat. “Unfortunately for me and a lot of my girlfriends, much worse things have happened to us here in Australia. I think we’d like to say it’s isolated to other countries. But we can see by domestic violence rates and the amount of women being unalived in Australia that it’s not safe here either.”
Her dream of buying a house in Italy has been put on hold. “I don’t think I’ll be going to Italy to work on a project unless I have someone that I’m doing it with now,” she said.
