In Their Own Words – CountryFile

They say that the country is not a place where crime takes place, but that could not be further from the truth – as this week, In Their Own Words goes into the Country Files for their tales.

For our first story, we talk to Amy, whose husband is a Ranger in a National Park in California – and what happened one day when she had an unexpected visitor.

I watched as Roger headed off in the jeep to the field office, and went back to clearing up the breakfast dishes. We’re both in our mid-thirties, and had been out here for a couple of years now, getting to know the local people.

That particular day I was wearing a long cardigan, made with burnt orange coloured wool, over a brown top and jeans, the legs of my jeans tucked into knee length black leather boots. I smiled as I stood at the sink, looking out over the landscape as I washed the dishes and started to drive them.

The knock on the front door took me by surprise, so I dried my hands and went to see who it was – I mean, we live in the country, but sometimes the farmer drops off some things. But it wasn’t him – it was a man in an orange jumpsuit, who pushed me back in and against the wall, closing the door with his foot as he covered my mouth with his rough hand, and ordered me not to say anything.

The surprise was soon replaced by the fear as I looked at him, and he asked me if I had any rope or tape in the house. I knew if I lied he would find out, so I nodded as he took his hand away and turned me round, pulling my arm up my back and making me yelp as he told me to show him where they were.

He forced me to take him to our laundry room, where we kept some ropes and camping gear, and he grabbed a coil of rope before making me go into the kitchen, and sitting me on a chair, ordering me to keep my hands on my head as he found a large carving knife and cut a length of rope from the coil.

He then went behind me and pulled my arms around the chair back, making me grunt as he used the rough rope to bind my wrists together behind my back, and then tied them to the centre spar of the chair back. He then walked back round and cut two more lengths of rope, then used them to secure my ankles to the front legs of the chair, spreading my legs as he did so.

I finally got up the courage to ask him who he was, and why he was doing this. Turned out he had escaped from a work detail sent out from the local penitentiary, and I was just a place for him to see what he could find to get further away.

That was when he picked up the roll of duct tape he had brought through as well, tore a strip off, and pressed it firmly down over my lips, with several more strips on top of that. He then used the rest of the rope around my waist to hold me against the chair back, and then left the room.

I heard him walking up the stairs, and then heard the shower running, as I tried to get myself free – but the ropes were too tight, and I could hardly move at all. I really was secured and silenced, unable to do anything but hope he wouldn’t do anything else…

The water was running for ten minutes before the door to the rear of the house opened, and I saw the two State Troopers come in, one of them holding a finger to his lips while the other drew his gun, and walked towards the staircase. I just had to wait while they arrested him, and then cut me free…

Back to England, and Laura and her husband had rented a cottage for the weekend – unaware someone was going to visit the cottage for another purpose…

It was out twentieth wedding anniversary, and my parents were watching the kids while Steve and I went away for the weekend. We had arrived a few hours before, and settled into the cottage that sat in a clearing in the woods. That gave is the opportunity to change for a walk in the forest before I cooked the meal from the ingredients we had brought with us.

Steve was wearing a brown leather jacket over a blue jumper, jeans and brown working shoes, while I had on a black waistcoat over a checked lumberjack shirt, and my jeans tucked into knee length brown leather boots. We walked for an hour, sharing our memories, before we walked back into the cottage – and then I was grabbed from behind, a leather gloved hand pressed down over my mouth as Steve turned and looked at me, then said “don’t hurt her.”

“We won’t if you both do what we say.”

I saw the man behind Steve, wearing a black leather jacket over a white shirt, trousers and shoes, before to my surprise a female voice from behind me said “we need to stop them getting into our way.”

“Agreed – both of you,” the man said as he pointed a gun at us, “kneel in front of the couch, and put your hands behind your back.”

“Just… just do what they say,” Steve said. I nodded as I was let go and walked over, kneeling next to Steve as we looked at each other and put our hands behind our backs.

I had no idea who they were, or what they wanted, but they had come prepared to meet someone, because while the man watched us with his gun I felt the woman put my wrists together behind my back, and then felt a loop of rope around them as they were pulled tightly together – and then I felt my ankles been secured together in the same way. I tried to move them apart, but the rope was too tight, so I watched Steve as he had his wrists and ankles secured together in the same way.

“I love you,” Steve whispered as he kissed me on the cheek.

“Sorry to interrupt your weekend away, but we can’t have you getting in the way,” the woman said, “open your mouth.” I reluctantly did what I was ordered to do, and then opened my eyes wide as a rolled up black cotton scarf was pulled between my lips, the band tied tightly round my head and pulling the corners of my mouth back as it was.

“Bhbhrrhffflhrrhh.”

I looked at Steve as I saw him closing his lips over the red scarf that was being tied between his lips, and nodded as we were made to sit back to back. I could then see the woman – grey haired like me, wearing a black dress, as she used more rope to bind the two of us together back to back.

That was actually quiet comforting – Steve was able to hold my fingers with his as they did this, and then the man handed the gun to the woman. She sat down and watched us as he went behind the couch, and heard him using something to lift up the floor boards there.

“Is it there?”

“It is,” he said as we heard him moving round, and then I saw him lifting a tin box up. The woman nodded as she stood up, and then Steve and I watched them both leave us sitting on the floor, struggling to try and get free.

It took a good hour for Steve to manage to untie my wrists, letting me move my arms round and move the other ropes up before I freed him, and we removed the soaking wet scarves from our mouths before he called the police on his mobile phone.

From their descriptions, their captors were identified as a husband and wife team of bank robbers, who had been convicted some years before – but hidden their gains there…

Esther is a farmer’s wife who had an unexpected caller – who made sure she was as comfortable as possible…

I had just got back from my maternity clinic appointment, and had made myself a cup of coffee before starting to get food sorted out for my husband when he came back in. My blue-grey wrap dress hugged my bump, while the brown knee length boots and brown tights were keeping my legs warm in the cool spring air.

So I sat myself down in a wooden rocking chair, my hot mug on a side table, and started to read the magazine I had with me.

“Hello.”

I did not recognise the voice, but he then said “please, don’t move – I only want to take your valuables, and given your condition, I do not want to cause you any unnecessary distress.”

“As opposed to…”

“As opposed to the fact I, regretfully, have to make sure you cannot get out of this chair or speak for a little while. I assure you, you will come to no harm if you do what I say. Now, about the keeping quiet bit…”

I looked to the side as I saw the folded white handkerchief in the black leather gloved hand.

“Open your mouth please.”

I had a choice? I opened my mouth up and let him put the cloth in, closing my lips as I glanced down and saw the edges sticking out from between my lips.

“Thank you – please, put your arms on the armrests, palms down.”

I wondered what was going on, but I did what he asked as he walked round and looked at me. He was an older man, with hair greying at the temples, and smiled as he made sure the cuff of my sleeve covered my right wrist – and then used a black zip tie to bind my wrist to the armrest, the rasping noise taking me by surprise as my arm was immobilised.

He walked round and used a second zip tie to secure my left wrist to the chair, and then knelt down, putting my ankles together before he used a third plastic strip to force them together as well. I remember lifting my legs to see the thin black band on the brown leather, before he looked at me.

“Don’t move, or spit that cloth out – I don’t want to do anything to hurt you.”

I nodded and watched as he looked in my purse, taking out my phone and my purse before he left me in the room. It surprised me how well I was held in place by three tightly pulled plastic strips – and I could feel the cloth getting wetter in my mouth as I heard him moving about upstairs.

When he came back down, he looked at me and said “thank you” before he just left. I had no idea who he was, what he had done – and it was another house before my husband came back in and freed me…

Una wanted to have a surprise waiting for her boyfriend when he came to their country hotel room – but she was the one who got a surprise…

I arrived an hour before he did, and checked in, going into the room and putting my bag down as I looked round. It was a wonderful room, and as I put my coat on the back of the chair I smiled.

Looking at myself in the mirror, I smiled again as I checked my outfit – an orange wool jumper over a black t-shirt, leggings and dark brown leather boots with a flat heel. I nodded, and then opened my bag, putting out what I would need for the surprise.

I started by folding the clean pair of panties, and then pushing them into my mouth as I looked in the mirror, smiling as I closed my lips over it and turned my head from side to side. I then picked up the strip of brown sticking plaster, peeled off the backing paper, and then pressed the brown fabric down over my lips and jaw, smiling under it as I saw the way it formed to the shape of my face.

I then walked over to the bed, picking up the first length of white rope and making a loop in one end, then tying the other end to the headboard of the bed. I then made a loop in one end of a second length, and tied that t the other side, leaving the loops on the pillows before I sat on the bed, and bent my legs.

Doubling over the next length of rope, I looked down, remembering what I had seen on line as I passed the rope round my booted ankles, pulled the ends through the centre loop and then back, feeling them being forced together. I then passed the rope round in neat coils, and then took the ends between my ankles to make it even tighter before I tied the ends off behind my legs.

I twisted my feet from side to side, and then nodded as I took a longer length of rope, and wound it round my legs below my knees, tying them together in the same way before I tried to move them. The squeal of leather on leather made my giggle, before I lay down on my book and fed my right hand through the loop on that side, and my left through the other loop. I then pulled my arms as the loops tightened round my wrists, so that they were securely tied, and then relaxed, knowing this would be a wonderful surprise for my boyfriend when he came in.

I had no idea there had been an accident – or that it would be the owner coming in to tell me he had been delayed who found me there…

Finally this week, a true story of how one family had to spend the evening…

“Be brave – I will see you all when this is over.”

I nodded as I sat on the couch, Jeannie on my left side and Timmy on my right, while my husband pulled on his leather jacket and looked at us. He was wearing a grey shirt, jeans and brown shoes, but he also had a worried expression on his face as he looked at us.

There were three other men in the room – wearing black boiler suits and balaclavas so that we could only see their eyes and mouths. Two of them were standing wither side of us, with sawn off shotguns in their hands, while the third one was with my husband.

“Do what he says, they stay safe,” the one next to Timmy said, the masked man nodding as he took my husband by the arm and led him off. They had burst into the room an hour before while we had been watching television, making us sit still as our children were brought down, and made to sit with us. He was been taken to the branch of the bank he worked for – and us…

We heard the car move off, before one of the men – the one who seemed to be the leader – stood in front of us and looked at us. He then looked at Timmy.

“You first – stand up, and put your hands behind your back.”

“Mum?”

I looked at my ten year old son, in his blue checked shirt, jeans and shoes and said quietly “just do what he says – we’re all going to be the same, I suspect.”

“Yes you are,” the masked man said as the other one reached into the large canvas bag he had brought in, and took out Jeannie and I watched him tie my son’s wrists together behind his back. He looked at us, looking very brave, as the man worked behind him – and then took more rope around his arms and upper body, pulling tight and then forming two bands, one around his upper arms and shoulders, the other around his stomach, before e tied that off. Finally, he took two shorter lengths and tied them between his arms and body to make the bands even tighter.

“Sit down and keep quiet,” the man said to Timmy, and then he motioned to Jeannie. My daughter was thirteen, and wearing a grey sweatshirt, jeans and brown cowboy boots, a blue scarf with white dots tied loosely round her neck.

As the man took more rope and started to bind her wrists and arms, I watched Timmy as he twisted round. The ropes were too tight, as he said “I’m scared Mum.”

“We all are,” I said quietly as I watched the bands of rope framing my daughter’s chest, and then the man feed the rope under one arm, up and around the back of her neck, and under the other arm before he tied it off. It made her look so different…

“Sit down kid – Mummy, you’re next.”

I stood up and brushed something off my dark grey jacket before I looked at the masked man. The jacket was over a lighter top, my jeans tucked into knee length grey suede boots, and then I felt my hands going behind my back and the rope on my wrists as they were secured together.

It felt rough, and then it felt tight as the ropes went round my own arms and upper body, framing my own chest and forcing my arms into my sides as the two children watched. As this was happening, the leader of the trio went to the bag and took out two red sponge balls, compressing them and then forcing them into the mouths of Timmy and Jeannie as they sat there.

“Just stay calm,” I said as the ropes rubbed on me, and then I saw him peel the end of a roll of white tape free and wrap it tightly round their heads, covering their mouths as they were further silenced. I felt the last tug as my ropes were tied off, and then saw the compressed sponge in front of my own mouth.

Once I had been gagged, they made me lie on the floor before my ankles were crossed and tied tightly together, then my legs below my knees, before my ankles were pulled back and tied to my chest ropes. Timmy was then made to lie to my side as I watched them bind his legs and hogtie him. We looked at each other as they made Jeannie lie on the other side of me, and she too was soon hogtied.

The two men sat and watched us, but we were too scared to move or even try to talk as the clock slowly ticked away. It was at least two hours before one of them got a phone call, and we were left with the lights turned off…

We’ll be back soon on In Their Own Words – until then…

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