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進入《TAIPEI TIMES 焦點》 Teenage girls climb down building to escape captors
An apartment complex in New Taipei City’s Sindian District — where two teenage girls were allegedly held captive for a week until their escape on Wednesday — is pictured yesterday. Photo: Chen Yi-yun, Taipei Times
CAPTIVE LABOR: The two girls said a telephone fraud ring forced them and two other girls to call an online retailer’s customers to try to get banking information
By Chen Yi-yun and William Hetherington / Staff reporter, with staff writer
Two teenage girls early on Wednesday morning used a rope fashioned from several pieces of clothing to escape an 11th-floor apartment in New Taipei City’s Sindian District （新店） where they were allegedly being held captive, police said yesterday.
The girls, a 16-year-old surnamed Liu （劉） and a 15-year-old surnamed Chen （陳）, had descended to the sixth floor when they were startled by a resident of the building who saw them, at which point Liu fell three stories and landed on a third-floor balcony.
Liu was taken to a hospital for treatment, police said, adding that the girls claimed they were held by a telephone fraud ring for six days before plotting an escape.
Chen told the police that she was introduced to a close, older male friend of Liu’s who claimed to have a job opportunity for the girls.
After meeting the man at a fast-food outlet in New Taipei City’s Sanchong District （三重）, the girls were taken by car to the apartment in Sindian, where they were forced to work for their captors, police cited Chen as saying, adding that she, Liu and two other girls cooperated out of fear of punishment if they refused.
A 10-person fraud ring forced the girls to call customers of an online retailer pretending to be from the site’s customer service department, police said, adding that the girls were ordered to try to coerce customers into giving them their banking information, which the ring then sold to others.
Chen told the police the girls were unable to leave, because the door to the room they were kept in was locked and they were under surveillance, adding that they came up with a plan to tie several pieces of clothing together into a rope to escape through a window early in the morning when their captors were asleep.
A tenant in the building told police she noticed the two climbing down while she was exercising outside and screamed, causing Liu to lose her grip and fall.
Liu dislocated her left shoulder and suffered lacerations to her left arm and left leg, police said, adding that she was still receiving treatment at a hospital.
The tenant told the police she thought Liu was attempting suicide until she saw the makeshift rope extending down to the seventh floor.
Upon learning about the alleged captors from the girls at the hospital, police said they rushed to the apartment, but found it empty, adding that during a subsequent check they encountered a man at the scene surnamed Lee （李）, who they detained for questioning.
Lee claimed to be looking for a friend and denied involvement with crime ring, but a court set his bail at NT$60,000.
The police said they have installed surveillance cameras inside the apartment, adding that building supervisors said they knew nothing about the tenants of the unit, which was rented on Oct. 15.
新聞來源：TAIPEI TIMES
