While we all await Derek Aikman's story about his 48 hours as a hostage, today we spoke to one man who says that he spent one night bound and gagged in the middle of nowhere. His name is Carlos Lopez and you might know him since he operates city buses within Belize City. He is normally on the news because of his quarrel with the Novelo brothers over bus routes but tonight its different. He told us that on Monday he was contracted to transport some people in Cristo Rey Village. He got a deposit of $600 and headed to Cristo Rey on Monday night. He was driving on a dirt road outside of Georgeville when he realized he had been set up. He told us he soon also realized it was too late to turn back.
Carlos Lopez, Bus Owner
"Approximately three or four miles from the main highway, when we turned around a curve, there as this masked guy, a guy who had mask and camouflage with a 16 gauge shotgun standing in the middle of the road and he told me to stop. I stopped, I got out the bus that I was in and I shouted over my left shoulder and told the other driver who had also come out the bus, I told him to run for his life and he took the bush.
The guy ordered me to take the bus into the bushes on a feeder road. At this time another guy had come into the bus with a heavier gun. He pulled me in the back of my shirt, pulled me, took a piece of my shirt, tore it off and stuck the shirt in my mouth and tied me. He gagged me so that if I shouted, I could not be heard. At that time one of the guys who was at the bus brought the tying material s which was a bungee cord, a red piece of rope, and they took my belt and my license, tied me up. They took my watch off, they took all the cash I had and they took my cell phone.
I was there all night trying to figure out in my mind how I could get out of this. I tried all the way I knew how. I tried and I couldn't get out. I stayed there all night and I didn't hear any sign of movement until about 4 am when the people from the Amish community started to come out.
Later on that morning I shouted and finally, two people from the Amish community came to my rescue. They asked me what happened and I told them what happened. They released me from where I was and at the same time a bus was coming. When the bus arrived there I got on the bus. They stopped the bus for me. I got into the bus, went to the roadside and called 911.
I want to also mention that these people who held me up, made mention to me, in Spanish, that I should get out of the bus business."
Keith Swift,
Sir this story sounds almost too incredible to be true.
Carlos Lopez,
"Well sir I'll be honest with you, I am glad that I am alive."
Lopez has filed a report with San Ignacio police. He believes the men were illegal aliens. The bus he took was burnt and the van was stolen.
