Kidnapped and beaten: a man’s terrifying night in Regina
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Tied up in a house that had blood on the walls and seeing the remains of others’ wallets strewn around, a 58-year-old man listened as his kidnappers decided whether to kill him.
He was the victim in a kidnapping reported last week in Regina. It happened overnight on Dec. 18.
The man was in Regina for work. The trucker parked his large truck, taken a cab to a cash machine at Victoria Avenue and Winnipeg Street, and then got a bite to eat at the Triple-8 Pizza on Victoria Avenue.
His truck was only six or seven blocks away so he decided to walk back; that’s when he was attacked.
“They duct taped my head up over top of a rag and took me to a house,” he described.
He said that he could see a bit around the rag when he looked over his glasses. He called the house “gory.”
“I wasn’t the first guy that was beaten in that house. There was high velocity blood stains on the wall and, you name it – other wallet material, you know that come from wallets.”
The man said they made him hand over all his money and credit cards before they beat him with a ball peen hammer. Then one of his kidnappers went out to drain the money from his accounts.
“The most terrible thing I’ve ever had happen in the world is that they were discussing whether they were going to kill me or not,” said the man. “Two people wanted to kill me, and one wanted me to…one wanted to let me go because he said he didn’t want to deal with a dead body that night.”
He said they eventually decided to let him go.
“They took me outside and they tried to disorientate me by spinning me in circles and pushing me over, and spinning me in more circles, and taking me this way, and taking me that way.”
He said they walked him a ways away and then left him in the middle of the street with cars whizzing past him. He said he could hear them honking, and it wasn’t until the noise calmed down and he couldn’t hear his attackers anymore that he tried to pry the rags and duct tape from his eyes.
“I looked around and here I’m in the middle of the street. So then I spun a circle there and took a look around and didn’t see them. So then I chose to go in the direction of the most light.”
He walked a little ways, then took a rest. He said he must have had an angel with him that night.
“I looked around and you know what the sign said? City of Regina police headquarters.”
Then the man said he went up the stairs to a phone and called for help.
“It was terrifying, but it was very satisfying when I saw that police headquarters, I’ll tell ‘ya. It was my saviour of sorts.”
He had a black eye and bruises, but he didn’t go to the hospital. He said the police had a paramedic check him out.
“I was more interested in the policeman getting to the…showing him where the house was before I forgot than I was in taking care of my well-being.
The man said he was counting his steps, and was able to bring the police back to the house he was taken to. That night, he called some friends he has in the city to get some help. Then that day he was back on the road, taking a load back home. He said his boss offered to pick him up, but the man refused.
“I was kind of a little adamant that, you know, I’m okay. I’ll suck it up for now,” he said.
“I suppose that I should have just said ‘the heck with it,’ but, you know, you’re 300 or 400 klicks from home right, so you ‘gotta get home one way or the other.”
Speaking with News Talk Radio over the phone, the man spoke slowly with lots of pauses and breaths, but he sounded normal, extraordinarily normal for someone who almost faced death less than a week before.
The man said he feels he’s lucky to be alive. But he’s not fine. He and his wife are scared of reprisals because he believes at least one of the men arrested is involved in a gang. He said his wife is scared of being home by herself.
He said this won’t make him stop coming into Regina, but he might now take precautions when he’s out of his truck.
“We’ve lived life with our doors unlocked and our keys in our ignition. I mean (my town) is a great place to live in, and when you go to Regina, you live in a place where you get out of your vehicle, you lock your vehicle, you lock everything up.”
Two men have been arrested and charged in the case. Milo Bear, 29, of Regina is being charged with armed robbery and forcible confinement. Charles Doiron, 32, from B.C. is being charged with possession of property obtained by crime. A third suspect remains at large.
The Regina Police Service wasn’t able to say how often crimes like this happen. It was able to say that forcible confinement – the charge for holding/confining someone against their will – was up in 2014 compared to the past three years with 25 incidents; it’s about par with the five years before that.
NOTE: An earlier version of this story contained the victim’s name. Although the name is now public knowledge due to the case being before the courts, his family has requested that his name and image be removed. Although News Talk Radio received permission to use the man’s name and reserves the right to publish information collected by our reporters, we have decided to make a unique exception.
