Hold­ing aloft his hands as he turned his eyes to the heav­ens and thanked Al­lah for his son Za­heer’s safe re­turn, William Samuel yes­ter­day said he want­ed the chance to meet the mys­tery man who was re­spon­si­ble for guid­ing his son out of the Va­len­cia for­est to free­dom on Wednes­day night.

It was a smil­ing yet tear­ful Samuel who thanked the pub­lic, Gov­ern­ment, the me­dia and the po­lice for their prayers, which, he be­lieved, helped in keep­ing his son alive and calm dur­ing the 17-hour kid­nap­ping or­deal.

Among those who dropped in to pray with the fam­i­ly and of­fer words of com­fort and sup­port was For­eign and Cari­com Af­fairs Min­is­ter Dr Amery Browne.

Za­heer Samuel, 14, was grabbed by armed men at 5.30 am on Wednes­day, as he was off-load­ing plants and flow­ers at his par­ents’ busi­ness—the S&S Plant and Gar­den Shop, East­ern Main Road, St Au­gus­tine.

He was re­cov­ered by the po­lice at 10.30 pm, af­ter be­ing led out of the for­est by a mys­tery man and di­rect­ed to walk along the mud­dy track lead­ing to Bac­chus Lane, off Quar­ry Road, Va­len­cia.

Pri­or to dis­ap­pear­ing back in­to the dense fo­liage, the un­named man ad­vised Za­heer to knock on the open door of a par­tic­u­lar house, where he was as­sured help would be giv­en.

Za­heer was led miles away from where he was ini­tial­ly left by his ab­duc­tors in a make-shift camp in San Pablo, Va­len­cia.

Ad­mit­ting yes­ter­day that Za­heer may not have made it out alive if it wasn’t for this kind stranger, the el­der Samuel not­ed his son will turn 15 on De­cem­ber 30.

“That was the best birth­day present I could get for my son,” the el­der Samuel said.

Of him­self, he said, “I feel­ing re­al good.”

Aware of the dan­gers Za­heer had faced af­ter be­ing aban­doned by the ab­duc­tors, Samuel said he had hus­tled hard his en­tire life to pro­vide for his fam­i­ly so they could be com­fort­able.

He an­gri­ly vent­ed, “You will come just so, take my son and where you car­ry him? In Cumaca? Cumaca have snake long like the road and then you leave him there four o’clock in the evening and yuh run out.”

He praised the un­named man, say­ing “I have to say Al­lah praise that Samar­i­tan what bring him out of in­side Cumaca, cause any­body know Cumaca, yuh dead.”

An emo­tion­al Samuel trained his guns on the ab­duc­tors, as he ques­tioned, “You leave my 14-year-old son with rain falling, in the bush? For what? Who yuh tar­get­ing?”

In­sist­ing the is­sue was not about race, he point­ed out, “Yuh tar­get­ing the In­di­an man. Yuh tar­get­ing the Ne­gro man. So why yuh doh tar­get the Syr­i­an man?”

He added, “If that good Samar­i­tan didn’t bring him out from that bush, I would­na find my son cause them snake woul­da swal­low him.”

Pressed to say what Za­heer’s men­tal and phys­i­cal well-be­ing was in the af­ter­math of the or­deal, Samuel said, “He show­ing a front but last night (Thurs­day) he was turn­ing and twist­ing.”

Say­ing he was un­cer­tain of the long-term ef­fects this would have on Za­heer mov­ing for­ward, Samuel said this would change things for the fam­i­ly.

“I have to study now how he go­ing to school. He like to go in the book­store cause when yuh pass here, Za­heer al­ways read­ing. He like to go for he Chi­nese (food) ... I had­da be watch­ing my son now. For what? Cause you want to take my son to get a dol­lar?”

He said he would now have to spend valu­able time to con­stant­ly watch over his wife and chil­dren as they op­er­at­ed their busi­ness.

“No, yuh doh do peo­ple that man, yuh doh do peo­ple chil­dren that,” he said.

He urged, “If you take out two case of soft drink and sell it, yuh could make a dol­lar. Buh you just want ... gimme, gimme, gimme. So I must work hard, I have a dol­lar and yuh want 99 cents out of meh dol­lar.”

Deny­ing they re­ceived a ran­som de­mand for Za­heer’s safe re­lease, he said the is­sue of ex­tor­tion had not arisen ei­ther.

Aware it was preva­lent oc­cur­rence along the East-West Cor­ri­dor, Samuel claimed, “This is the first time that ever hap­pen to us. For 28 years, we stay out here day and night.”

Hop­ing they would not have to en­dure this kind of pres­sure again, Samuel said while the fam­i­ly would not be look­ing to close their doors just yet, they would have to be dou­bly alert now.

Point­ing to of­fi­cers of the North East­ern Di­vi­sion Task Force who stopped to speak with the fam­i­ly as he had been speak­ing with re­porters, Samuel said they could not de­pend sole­ly on the po­lice.

“We had­da pro­tect we self. We had­da have we eye open,” he added.

Call­ing on of­fi­cers to in­crease their vis­i­bil­i­ty in the com­mu­ni­ty, es­pe­cial­ly as busi­ness­es opened dai­ly—Samuel said this could act as a de­ter­rent to crim­i­nal el­e­ments in­tent on wreak­ing hav­oc. He said he was pre­pared to stay home and drop Za­heer to and from school dai­ly, if that is what it took for him to feel safe again and to en­sure the fam­i­ly’s men­tal well-be­ing.

De­spite this, he urged the au­thor­i­ties to, “give the busi­ness­man and them more pro­tec­tion.”