Husbands poker buddies bluff police

RIALTO - The guys thought the poker game called for a bluff, but the wife didn't know it was better left uncalled.

A woman, flush with fear, dialed 9-1-1 Saturday after returning from a night out with her husband. She had just watched helplessly as two men ambushed him in the couple's garage, threw him in a car and sped away.

Rialto police immediately began looking for the described getaway car and suspected kidnappers - even enlisting a San Bernardino County sheriff's helicopter in the search.

But when the car was located minutes later, police found a pair of jokers.

Unbeknown to the officers and the 'victim's' wife, the whole incident was staged by the man's buddies to get him to play poker, said Rialto Sgt. Carla McCullough.

"We were treating it as a big deal," McCullough said of the kidnapping call, which was reported at about11:30 p.m. Saturday, from a home on the 1200 block of North Chestnut Avenue in Rialto. "But we get to the car, and the guy says, 'these are my friends; they just wanted me to play poker.' "

The car had been spotted and pulled over near the corner of North California Street and Base Line in San Bernardino, less than two miles from the couple's home. Police, seeing no signs of suspicious activity, let the friends go.

No one answered the door Sunday afternoon at the address given by police as the couple's home. Their names were not released.

McCullough said no one was charged. "She didn't know who the guys were," McCullough said, . "She was all frantic. She thought her husband had been kidnapped."
By PAUL LaROCCO

News Added: 11 April, 2005

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