(Updated below)

A short story in the Republic says:

Miguel Romo, 59, left his home to run errands and pick up items for his daughter’s birthday party around 4:30 p.m. Saturday, Phoenix police Lt. Lauri Burgett said.

Several hours later his family was called by the kidnappers. They demanded money for his safe return, Burgett said.

The paper doesn’t say if they paid the ransom. Sigh. The reporters quote a police spokesperson but then write:

It was not clear if anyone had been arrested in the case.

Why couldn’t they just ask the spokesperson? Couldn’t he simply say yes or no?

I cite this story not just because of, again, the routinely poor editing at the Arizona Republic, but because of a meme circulating to the effect that Phoenix now has the second-highest kidnapping rate in the world after Mexico City. The statistic was apparently cited on a National Geographic Channel’s report on the drug war last night.

Folks tweeted the line, and I poked around to find a citation for it; it’s possible that this has been in the Republic a lot and I just haven’t noticed it. It has appeared in speeches by John McCain, so I assume it has a basis in fact.

The cites say that the city now has an average of nearly one kidnapping per day.

Update: Le Templar writes:

I believe the notion that Phoenix is the kidnapping capital of the U.S. began with this story from ABC News on Feb. 11.

The story appears to rely on official 2008 crime statistics from various cities around the world, but the exact sources aren’t clear.

A similar story appeared on the L.A. Times web site on the very next day as part of its extensive series on Mexican drug violence, citing unnamed local and federal sources.
Hope this helps!