Last year, Richard Mendelstein, a soft-spoken 56-year-old software engineer at Google, received a call. On the other end of the line, Mendelstein heard his daughter sobbing in fear.

"They kidnapped me!" she screamed. "Dad, please help!"https://t.co/Odf7xbTQ3l pic.twitter.com/HPaL16jsF1

— Insider News (@InsiderNews) March 20, 2022