Kidnapper Demands Ransom Using Photo Of Victim With Alligator On Back

A Connecticut kidnapper made unusual use of a large reptile while abducting a man and asking for ransom, according to police. In order to prove that his kidnapping victim was actually in danger, abductor Isaias Garcia photographed the 21-year-old abductee with a 3-foot-long alligator baring its teeth on his back.

The kidnapping occurred back in April, the Connecticut Post reported. The victim called his aunt on the phone and told her he had been kidnapped and his captor, later identified as Garcia, wanted $800 or else the victim would “burn.” Officers traced the phone call as it was happening, as the aunt asked for photographic proof of the kidnapping.

When the picture arrived, things took a turn for the bizarre. In the photo, the woman’s nephew lied face-down in a bathtub with the aforementioned gator posing menacingly on his back.

“Titi, man, they got this alligator on me and they saying that if no money is given, they are gonna have him chewing on me,” the victim said in a phone call afterward, per the Connecticut Post.

Police traced the phone call to a Residence Inn hotel in Shelton, Connecticut, and found out the room number by consulting a Chinese restaurant that had delivered to the same phone number. When authorities showed up, the room only contained Garcia’s girlfriend and the pet alligator from the photo.

Eventually, Garcia returned to the hotel with the abductee and was arrested. Aside from two burn marks inflicted upon him by Garcia, the victim was rescued safely. The alligator was also captured in an unharmed state, according to News 12.

Garcia served an aggravated robbery conviction in Texas before being detained by police in Connecticut. Held on $250,000 bond, Garcia faces charges of first-degree kidnapping, attempted first-degree larceny by extortion, unlawful restraint, third-degree assault, and threatening, according to the Connecticut Post.