A middle aged man identified as Jonathan Cooker, decided to go back to the olden ways of trade by barter, but this time, he decided to trade off an eight-year-old boy he kidnapped to buy good worth N51,000, in the Surulere area of Lagos State.
But luck however, ran out of him as he was arrested in the process and is currently cooling his heels in police detention.
As the story goes, Cooker had reportedly kidnapped the boy, primary school pupil who was returning from a summer coaching in a school located around Lawrence road in the area and took him to a provision store located on Cole Street and ordered for crates of soft drinks.
When the shop keeper calculated the amount and told him it was N51,000, Cooker allegedly told the woman that the money he had on him was not enough and he would leave his younger brother at the shop and dash home to bring the balance of the money.
The unsuspecting shop owner obliged him and gave the crates of soft drinks to him, believing he would come back to pay up and go with the boy.
But his game went up in the air when a passer-by identified the boy and asked him what he was doing in the shop. Seeing that his plan was about to backfire, Cooker broke into a run in order to escape but the man and the shop owner raised an alarm and he was apprehended when it turned out the boy was not his brother but had been abducted by the suspect.
Typically, he was given the beating of his life before being rescued by the police and whisked away, but not before he had confessed to his scheme.