Three Safe in Beirut Kidnap Scare : Hostages: Story comes as a surprise to American and two Germans, who say they were robbery victims.

BEIRUT —  After a kidnaping scare based on messages from the Lebanese underworld, a San Francisco woman and two West Germans turned up safe today, telling diplomats they had been held up by robbers but had not been taken hostage.

Wolfgang Goettelmann, West German ambassador to Lebanon, said Deborah Fahrend, 54; Munir Sami, 39, and his 7-year-old son Daniel were never kidnaped as claimed by the otherwise unknown Just Revenge Organization.

Munir Sami is a Lebanese-born West German citizen. Fahrend had recently been living in West Berlin.

The three foreigners first heard of their alleged abduction when they read today’s newspapers, the ambassador said.

“They were astonished when they read the story. They came to the embassy to see what was happening,” he said.

According to Fahrend’s 89-year-old mother, Margaret Brooks of Davis, Calif., the American woman went to Lebanon last month to do research for a book and she has a publisher lined up. Her only previous published works--including poetry--had been printed by herself, Brooks said.

In a letter to her mother last week, Fahrend wrote she was going to Beirut with Munir Sami. “I’m going to use Munir’s connections to the hilt,” referring to diplomatic friends he has in Lebanon. “It seems to me to be a chance in a lifetime,” Fahrend added.

“She tackles life pretty much head-on, but she would be unaware of danger in thinking of going to Lebanon,” Fahrend’s sister, Emily Rowe, said in Davis.

“She’s creative and wants to do something, and she’s still searching for her fulfillment, and that’s why she’s doing the writing.”

Sami’s sister, Marwa, said the three were seized by gunmen who held them for about 24 hours and took all their money. The three were then set free.

Most Western news agencies in West Beirut ignored as probable hoaxes telephone calls Tuesday claiming the three were hostages. A later message, accompanied by copies of their evidently stolen passports, was reported Wednesday.

Sami’s mother said the three were expected to leave by boat from the Christian-held port of Jounieh, north of Beirut, and fly from Cyprus to West Germany later today.