Ecuador - Kidnapped Israeli Mickey Grossman Rescued
Israeli expat Mickey Grossman and his team who were
kidnapped by Indians during a tour of the Amazon Rainforest in Ecuador have
been rescued. The identity of their rescuers remains unknown.
Mickey's wife, Noga, related the story of the rescue
effort. "Last night an oil company's car carrying two people arrived at
the camp where Mickey and his team were being held. They went to talk to the
Indians and on their way out whispered to Mickey in English that he must
prepare to be extracted at 4 am."
Grossman, 64, embarked on an Amazon trek over three
months ago with the purpose of raising awareness for the destruction of
rainforests, whose plants have yielded a variety of medications, including the
cancer drugs that saved his own life a few years ago.
A former IDF paratrooper who fought under Ariel Sharon in
the Yom Kippur War, Grossman moved to the United States with his wife and four
children two decades ago, setting up a homestead in Orlando, Florida.
He was supposed to cover an unprecedented course of 5,000
miles stretching between the Pacific and the Atlantic Oceans.
"Initially, Mickey's team members, some six porters,
were afraid to make an escape, but Mickey convinced them it was the only way
out of there," Noga Grossman said. "And sure enough at 4 am, in the
dark, a team came to rescue them and drove them on roads paved by the oil
companies in the Amazon rainforest. They drove for three hours to a place
called Rio Napo."
There, Ecuador government officials and a TV crew awaited
the team. The government official apologized to Grossman for the ordeal he and
his team underwent, and Grossman asked him to take the group to the next point
on his journey. He intends to continue his journey despite having lost a major
part of his equipment to the Indians.
"He still has the most important equipment, the
electronic equipment, which is imperative for the rest of the journey,"
Noga said. "Mickey is annoyed but is going ahead. That's his nature, he
won’t stop now."
It can now be revealed that Grossman carried with him
advanced technological devices that sent a satellite signal to Google Earth
every 10 minutes which allowed the Israeli-American team to trace his exact
location.
"I didn’t believe he was rescued until I spoke to
him on the satellite phone," Noga said. "It was a sigh of
relief."
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