Maid abducts boss' toddler

TANGERANG (JP): A teenage housemaid was arrested on Friday for allegedly kidnapping her employers' 18-month-old daughter after being told she could not visit her hometown in Palembang, an officer said.

With the child in her possession, the 15-year-old maid, Ida, phoned her employer and told her to hand over a Rp 5 million (US$715) ransom.

Deputy chief of Tangerang Police detectives Second Lt. Sumanta said that Ida abducted Audry on Thursday when her employers were at work.

"She did it with the help of her boyfriend, who is still on the run," the officer said.

The couple also reportedly stole two suitcases of clothes belonging to Ida's employer Eni Yuniarti, 31, a resident of Bintaro Jaya housing complex in Pondok Aren, Tangerang, and took them to her boyfriend's rented home in Ciracas, East Jakarta.

Sumanta said the police were able to find where the couple were from the telephone number recorded on Eni's mobile phone.

"They called Eni on her mobile phone soon after she got home and asked for the ransom," Sumanta said, quoting Eni's report.

Ida reportedly confessed to the police that she and her boyfriend had planned the kidnapping and theft because she had not saved any of her salary over the past year.(41/01)