After police arrested five nude adults for allegedly snatching a couple and baby, a relative blamed the bizarre event on ‘some type of herbal drug or something’

This article is more than 2 years old

This article is more than 2 years old

There’s another trippy twist in a bizarre case of naked kidnapping that ended with a car crash and handcuffs in the Canadian cold.

Three people are facing charges of kidnapping and resisting arrest after a couple and their baby were allegedly forced from their home near Edmonton and stuffed into a car full of naked people – which then collided with a pickup truck.



Canada's naked car crash takes new twist as three face kidnapping charges Read more

But a relative of the accused has now said that the baffling incident was probably caused by a round of hallucinogenic “tea” over breakfast.



“It’s absolutely crazy,” the man told the Canadian Press. He cannot be named due to a court publication ban protecting the identity of youths involved in the case.

The family relative said his teenage daughters were having breakfast that morning with his ex-wife and two adult friends, a man and a woman.

The male friend had just returned from India and offered some tea he’d brought back with him, the relative said.

That sparked the “whole crazy spell,” the relative told the Canadian Press.

The strange saga burst into the open earlier this week when Royal Canadian Mounted Police were called to the scene of a collision in an industrial park in Nisku, south of Edmonton.



They found a BMW sedan which had apparently rammed a pickup truck. Inside the car were five people, all of them naked despite snow on the ground and the temperature around 10C below zero (14F).

Police described the crash as a “purposeful collision” and said drugs or alcohol may have been a factor. The five people were arrested at the scene.



Upon further investigation, the RCMP said two adults and a six-week-old baby were taken from a nearby residence and forced into a vehicle about 20 minutes before the crash.

The male victim – who had been stuffed into the trunk of the car – managed to escape from the moving car. Minutes later, so did the woman, holding the baby.

A passerby noticed the man on the side of the road and stopped to pick him up. The woman and baby followed shortly after. The good Samaritan was later identified as an employee of Leduc Plumbing and Heating by the company co-owner Derek Scott.

“Apparently they came out of the ditch with no shoes on, so he stopped to see, obviously, if they needed help,” Scott told CTV News. “It’s the middle of the winter and people running around with no shoes on – you stop to help them.”

After the three people climbed into the Samaritan’s truck, Scott said, “the unclothed people in the BMW” drove up behind the truck and “rammed him from behind”. The force of the collision pushed the truck into a ditch.

Shortly after police and firefighters arrived on the scene, they removed the five suspects from the car, cuffing their hands behind their backs.

“There was no covering,” Scott told the Canadian Press. “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 was a pretty wild fight. It took five people to get her out.”

Police said the victims were not injured.

The relative told the Canadian Press that everyone involved had been taken to the hospital, but that none of them can remember exactly what happened.

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

Blood tests were also taken at the hospital, he said. “Nothing came back like illicit drugs, so they figure it may have been some type of herbal drug or something.”

The three suspects were released on bail after a court hearing on Thursday.