And finally… Trials and tribulations
A group of people who thought they had survived the Great Tribulation, a period of suffering that Evangelical Christians believe precedes the Second Coming, and who kidnapped their neighbours in order to protect them from demons, were found naked in an SUV they had crashed into a ditch as they attempted to flee the end of the world.
The Jehovah’s Witnesses, two women and a man, admitted to kidnapping three people in Alberta, Canada, on November 6 last year. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police discovered them at the scene of a car crash in an industrial park in Nisku, south of Edmonton.
Plea documents reveal that the episode began a few days earlier when one of the women took her teenage daughters to visit her nephew and his wife.
After three days in the house, during which time the group ate almost nothing, they came to believe they had survived the Great Tribulation, prompting them to flee what they thought was the end of the world.
“Four who were naked were changing but they had to leave right away because it was unsafe, so they left without clothes,” according to the plea document.
After forcing their neighbours into their SUV, the group sped down the highway while chanting “Jehovah”.
The neighbours managed to escape when the car slowed down and flagged a passing truck, which was then rammed by the SUV, causing both vehicles to end up in a snow-filled ditch.
Police who attended the incident said the group “displayed extreme strength” and would not leave the car for fear of “monsters who would kill them”.
They were, however, subdued with pepper spray and tasers.