A man, beaten, kidnapped and put in the trunk of his own car, escaped after vehicle crashed and caught fire in Seattle, police said.
The vehicle crashed into a home in the 7200 block of 27th Avenue NE in the city’s Ravenna neighborhood shortly after 5 a.m. Thursday, authorities said.
«Witnesses saw a man get out of the trunk of the crashed vehicle» and fire crews put out the flames from the car fire. according to a statement by Detective Judinna Gulpan.
The 63-year-old man «reported that he had been assaulted by several suspects, then tied up and placed in the trunk of his own vehicle,» Gulpan added.
Moments immediately after the accident, neighbors said they could hear the victim calling for help.
«And then there was a cry of ‘ahh, ahh!’ I think he was trying to yell for help,” neighbor Cheng Yu told the NBC affiliate. KING from Seattle. «You can’t make these things up, it’s so absurd.»
Another neighbor, Raegan McKibbon, said she saw two people jump out of the car and run before helping the victim.
«He was all tied up with rope and he was yelling, ‘Help me, help me, I just got kidnapped, call 911!'» McKibbon said. “They had hit him pretty hard. They cut his face with a knife, punched him and beat him a lot.»
The car crashed into the home of Brooks Mierow, who was thankful that the man in the trunk survived and the damage to his home was no worse.
«Nobody was hurt, the house didn’t burn down, you know, that can be fixed,» Mierow said.
An 18-year-old man, reportedly matching the description of a possible suspect, was briefly detained before being released, police said.
The suspects were not identified and there were no immediate arrests.