Abducted Sun Valley Girl Rescued at Salinas Motel

A 16-year-old Sun Valley girl was rescued from an armed abductor in Salinas after she tricked the man into thinking that she was speaking on the phone to a motel clerk when she was actually talking to police, authorities said Wednesday.

As the girl and her spurned boyfriend, Aroldo del Rosario Rodriguez, 21, left a motel room late Tuesday afternoon, police officers rushed from an adjoining room to rescue her, Salinas Police Capt. Ron Scott said.

Rodriguez, also of Sun Valley, was carrying a cocked .38-caliber semiautomatic handgun when he was arrested on suspicion of kidnaping, possessing a loaded firearm and carrying a concealed weapon, Scott said. The girl, who was not identified, was unharmed.

“She was very composed for someone 16 years old,” Scott said. “Her presence of mind and an ability to carry out directions greatly aided our efforts.”

7 a.m. Abduction

The girl’s ordeal began about 7 a.m. Tuesday when Rodriguez and another man abducted her from a Sun Valley street, Scott said. They put her in a car whose doors could be locked from the outside to keep her from escaping, he said.

After dropping off his accomplice, Rodriguez drove to Salinas and checked into a room at the Casa Linda motel, Scott said.

Police believe Rodriguez was angry because the girl had broken off their relationship.

When Rodriguez let the girl call the motel clerk to place a long-distance call to her parents, she told the clerk in English that she was being held at gunpoint, Scott said. Rodriguez only speaks Spanish, he said.

Clerk Called Police

The clerk then contacted the police, who came to the motel and telephoned the girl from the office, Scott said. Making her captor believe she was arranging the call to her parents, the girl then described the situation and listened as a police officer gave her instructions, Scott said.

When Rodriguez took the girl outside to get something to eat, SWAT team members pushed the girl out of the way and pinned Rodriguez against a car, the police captain said.

Rodriguez is being held in Monterey County Jail in lieu of $75,000 bail, Scott said.

Police are trying to determine the identity of the second abductor, he said.