[Editor: In March 2001, a dispute over a drug debt led to Reggie being abducted and assaulted by a group of men from New Brunswick.

Reggie later wrote a detailed account of how the dispute began and what happened to him. The following is his account..]

The Kidnapping incident

… And then there was the kidnapping.  It’s hard to forget the kidnapping.  I suppose this incident could be filed under “crime doesn’t pay”. 

Trying to Go Straight

After 2 years in jail, a year in rehab and my wife leaving me, I decided to try going straight.  But it wasn’t working out very well.  Still isn’t actually, now that I think about it.

Back in the Cocaine Business

So anyway, I was living with my parents and working for $7.00/hr., when I got a call from one of my old jail buddies, offering to set me up in the cocaine business.  I was interested.  I wasn’t making any money as it was, and I missed the excitement of the drug trade. 

This guy was living in Moncton about a three hour drive from my house.  I made a few trips back and forth and I got things going.  Coulda worked out but the guy was a fucking idiot.  The coke was all cut to shit, and he kept calling me and telling me I owed him more money.  I was used to dealing with professionals, but this guy was just a small town idiot, on parole after getting caught with six kilos and then caught again with 16 ounces.  A real genius this guy.

The Snowstorm

One day he calls me and says that I have to drive to Moncton to pay him some money right now.  But it was a snowstorm.  I couldn’t do it and I told him so.  But he wouldn’t take no for an answer.  Finally, I said, “alright, alright, I’ll go”.  And I tried to.

But like I said, it was a snowstorm, a major snowstorm.  I got about 1 mile out of town, and I got the car stuck.  There were drifts all over the road, the visibility was next to zero, and they had called the plows off the road.  This was probably the worst storm of the year.  I called a tow truck on my cell and within an hour I was on my way again.  I made it another mile and I was stuck again.  Another call to the tow-truck.  This time he pulled me out and told me to go home, he wasn’t coming back to get me again.  Fuck you, I said, under my breath.  Off I went, and sure enough, within 5 minutes I was stuck again.  I had to abandon the car and hitchhike home.  I damn near froze to death waiting for a ride.

The Threats Begin

After I got home and thawed out, I got on the phone.  I explained what happened, but he wouldn’t believe me.  He wouldn’t listen to a word I said so I hung up the phone.  Every 15 minutes he called back, all day and all night.  I couldn’t reason with him – he just kept calling back.  My mother and father were up all night with the phone ringing, and everyone was in a bad mood.

Men at the House

The next day a van pulled into the driveway around 2 o’clock in the morning and 5 guys got out banging on the door.  I didn’t want any trouble in my parents’ house so I through $3000 dollars out the window and told them that my father had already called the cops.  I was just bluffing but they took me real serious.  Anyway, they didn’t stick around to say goodbye.  I owed him about $4000, and I had the money, but I shorted him $1000 just because he was being such an asshole.  I was going to pay him, but on my schedule, not his, because I didn’t like being pushed around.

He decided that I owed him $4000 and this is when things started to get dirty.  No way was I giving him $4000.  I’d give him what I owed him and not a cent more.  Even that I didn’t think he deserved and I told him so.

The Meeting

So now he’s calling me every 2 or 3 ranting and raving telling me that he’s going to send the Hells Angels over to kill me and my parents and blow up the house, and shoot the dog, blah, blah, blah …  This guy belongs in a nuthouse. 

The last time that I spoke to him he told me that the Angels were coming tomorrow and I should go see them.  I didn’t really believe they’d come looking for me over a few thousand dollars, but I thought that if they did call, I could talk this over and work it out. 

It was about 7:00 in the evening when the phone rang.  I was home alone.  The guy on the phone asked me to meet him outside the grocery store downtown.  I jumped in my father’s truck and went to see them.  I didn’t bring much money, but I had a newspaper clipping of an article talking about how bad the snowstorm had been the week before, just to prove I was telling the truth.

The Kidnapping

When I parked the truck, I saw 6 guys in the van.  I should never have stopped but I couldn’t have imagined what would happen. 

I walked up to the van and two of them got out and grabbed my keys and pushed me into the van.  Then they piled on me, so I was sitting behind the driver seat with people all around me.  I was feeling very uneasy.  I opened my mouth to talk and the guy beside me started punching me in the face over and over again. 

The sliding door was still open, so I tried to get out.  I jumped for the door.  But there were too many of them.  They were all grabbing me and screaming at me.  They cuffed my hand behind my back, tied my feet together, and then threw a coat over my head. 

“I’m so fucking stupid”, I was thinking, “why didn’t I run when I had the chance”.  There’s no way out of this; I’m going to die.  I was lying on the floor struggling to breathe.  There was so much blood I was choking on it.  One of them yells, “this fucker got blood all over my shirt.  He’s gonna pay for that.”  And then he kicks me in the back. 

I didn’t know where we were going but Moncton was a good guess.  Later I was told that I was going to be delivered to the Hells Angels in Montreal.  That’s a death sentence.

As we were driving, they emptied all my pockets, throwing my ID and cell phone out the window saying I wouldn’t need them anymore.  This is bad, very bad.   One guy was really aggressive, every time his pager went off, he would kick me, saying, “You fucker.  I’m losing money cause of you.  You hear that. I’m losing money (kick)!”

“Who’s Going to Pull the Trigger?”

After about an hour we stopped.  I don’t know where we were.  I could hear them talking outside the van.  One of them asked the other, “who’s going to pull the trigger?”  “They are” came the reply.  I’m going to die in Montreal, and my body will never be found.  Nobody knows what’s going on.  Nobody knows where I am. 

Worrying About Methadone

At this time a strange thought went through my head.  I was addicted to drugs, and I was buying methadone on the street to keep the sickness away.  I thought to myself, “Oh fuck, I’m going to be in Montreal with all those bikers beating on me and the methadone is going to wear off before I get there.  It’s bad enough that they’re going to kill me but to have to go through it without my drugs”.  What a junkie I am, about to be killed and I’m worrying about running out of dope!

And off we went again.  Three of the guys were following in my dads truck.  I guess they were going to sell it for parts.

Editor’s Note:  While Reggie was bound inside the van, the RCMP had already been alerted. Contemporary newspaper reports say police received an anonymous call reporting that someone had been taken against his will and providing a description of the van. A checkpoint was established near Borden-Carleton, where police spotted and stopped the vehicle.