Three Canadians charged with kidnapping after crashing their car while naked Three Canadians charged with kidnapping after crashing their car while stark naked may have been under the influence of “herbal […]

Three Canadians charged with kidnapping after crashing their car while stark naked may have been under the influence of “herbal tea”, according to a relative.

A man and two women appeared in court over the incident on Thursday, but cannot be named for legal reasons. They are accused of kidnapping a man, a woman and a baby just six weeks old, and forcing them into a car. Two teenage girls were also arrested, but not charged. The incident took place near Edmonton, Alberta.

“Wild fight”

The man managed to escape from the car boot and he was shortly followed by the woman and baby. They were then picked up on the roadside by a truck driver, who saw them standing there without shoes.

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The naked revellers then rammed the truck, after which police arrived on the scene. Derek Scott, whose company LPH Industrial owns the truck, was called to the scene. He described the arrest he witnessed as a “wild fight”.

“Walk of shame”

He told CBC News: “The guy had to do the walk of shame in front of everybody, then two more women did the walk of shame in front of everybody … then the one lady was the last to be removed — she put up the biggest fight.

“It took five people to get her out.”

“Targeted incident”

Police have described the situation as a “targeted incident”, suggesting that the kidnappers knew their abductees.

But a relative told the Canadian Press that the trio had crashed into the van because they believed its driver was abducting the escaping passengers. “They were under the impression that they were saving that guy and the woman and the little girl,” he said.

Herbal tea

The relative said the arrestees had brought back some herbal tea from India, which they had enjoyed over breakfast. This initiated the “whole crazy spell”, he said.

“It’s a scary thought thinking, ’Oh, let’s try this tea that we purchased’,” the relative said. “And then all sit down thinking they’re just going to have a nice morning and end up in that circumstance.

“Whatever potency that stuff had obviously is making it so it’s just a big blur.

“Nothing came back [from blood tests] like illicit drugs, so they figure it may have been some type of herbal drug or something.”