Hero father defied all the odds to rescue his kidnapped daughter from Mexico in 'real-life Taken'
Topics: News, World News, US News
Callum Jones
Featured Image Credit: X/@bryceweiner
Topics: News, World News, US News
A father managed to defied all the odds by rescuing his kidnapped daughter following a 'real-life Taken' situation.
For those who are unaware, the Taken series is one of the most loved action-thrillers to have ever been released.
The star of the show is very much Liam Neeson, who plays Bryan Mills - a former government operative trying to reconnect with his daughter Kim (Maggie Grace).
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However, his worst fear becomes a reality as human traffickers abduct Kim and her friend, meaning Bryan must carry out every single thing he learnt in the black ops to rescue her.
Well, the harrowing plot turned into a reality for a Californian man whose daughter went on a bike ride one afternoon and did not return.
Bryce Weiner was living in a quiet neighborhood where moments of crime are very much few and far between.
However, in August 2010, Weiner's 14-year-old daughter was manipulated by an individual into crossing the Mexican border.
The kidnapper also revoked all of the teen's access to cellular devices, essentially meaning she was unable to contact anyone.
She eventually ended up 3,000 miles away from home, was kept in a place where she couldn't go outside and had no money.
During her time in captive, Weiner's daughter was beaten and psychologically abused in harrowing circumstances.
The authorities were not of much help to the devastated dad either, as she was technically not taken 'strictly against her will'.
Rather than treating the incident as a kidnapping, local authorities dubbed it as an 'endangered runaway'.
Three years went by with no answers forthcoming for Weiner, so he eventually decided to take matters into his own hands by driving 5,000 miles from Los Angeles to Coyotepec, Mexico.
The journey took a whopping 31 hours, with Weiner pretending to be a deaf 'beggar' in order to deter attention.
While all this was going on, the man's daughter managed to escape in the middle of the night, but she had no knowledge her father was in Mexico.
As a result, the teen remarkably ran barefoot to the US embassy where she was finally reunited with Weiner after three traumatic years.
Weiner told the 'real-life Taken' story on social media, penning on Facebook in November 2013: "To all those who gave up, walked away, told me I should be ashamed, told me I was crazy, turned their back, or told me it was impossible… You were wrong."
He also addressed the situation on X in 2021, writing: "My daughter disappeared from our quiet suburban neighborhood in August of 2010.
Three years later, 8 years ago today, in direct defiance of the CHP, FBI, and the State Department I travelled 5,000 miles into Mexico and did what everyone said was impossible.
"I brought her home."
Truly incredible.