An emergency alert sent from a kidnapping victim’s Apple Watch led authorities to their alleged abductors after what prosecutors said was a “targeted attack.”
The Dover Police Department in New Jersey received the “emergency SOS” from a local resident’s Apple watch the morning of Thursday, March 19, according to the Morris County Prosecutor’s Office.
When officers then visited the person’s home for a welfare check, they did not find them, the prosecutor’s office said.
Officers, however, noticed the person’s car was not outside of their house, according to authorities, and they also found their Apple Watch abandoned about a mile down the street.
The device “appeared to have been damaged as if it was forcefully removed from their person,” the prosecutor’s office said.
Investigators then “identified a suspect vehicle” driving in Elizabeth, where police pulled the vehicle over, according to prosecutors.
During the traffic stop, they arrested two people, Siquaya F. Smith and Louis G. Cadet, who were identified as the kidnapping suspects, the prosecutor’s office said.
The kidnapping victim was located in the back seat of their vehicle with several injuries, including broken ribs and a cut to their head, according to prosecutors. They were treated at a local hospital before they were then released.
Smith, 37, and Cadet, 40, both of Northfield, were arrested on charges of first-degree kidnapping, second-degree robbery, second-degree conspiracy to commit kidnapping, third-degree aggravated assault, third-degree possession of a weapon for unlawful purpose, and two counts of fourth-degree unlawful possession of a weapon, the prosecutor’s office said.
It was not immediately clear whether Smith or Cadet had hired attorneys who could speak on their behalf.
Smith and Cadet are accused of targeting the victim, who was heading to work when they were abducted on March 19, according to prosecutors.
They allegedly drove to the person’s house and “forced them into their vehicle,” the prosecutor’s office said.
Then they drove the person to “an unidentified location,” and tried to obtain $25,000 from the victim, according to authorities.
Smith and Cadet allegedly “threatened” the victim “to contact their financial institutions to transfer $25,000 to [them],” the prosecutor’s office said.
It is unclear whether the victim knew Smith and Cadet.
“Thanks to rapid response by law enforcement aided by new technology in Morris and Union counties, we were able to locate the victim and bring an end to this dangerous situation in a matter of hours,” Morris County Prosecutor Robert Carroll said in a statement.
