FILE - This Oct. 6, 2001 file photo shows Cal Ripken escorting his mother, Vi, from the field, after throwing out the ceremonial first pitch before Cal's final game, at Oriole Park in Baltimore. Police say Cal Ripken Jr.'s mother is safe after an armed man abducted her from her home northeast of Baltimore. Aberdeen police say 74-year-old Vi Ripken was kidnapped between 7 a.m. and 8 a.m. Tuesday, July 24, 2012, by a man who forced her into her car. (AP Photo/Nick Wass)
FILE - This Oct. 6, 2001 file photo shows Cal Ripken escorting his mother, Vi, from the field, after throwing out the ceremonial first pitch before Cal's final game, at Oriole Park in Baltimore. Police say Cal Ripken Jr.'s mother is safe after an armed man abducted her from her home northeast of Baltimore. Aberdeen police say 74-year-old Vi Ripken was kidnapped between 7 a.m. and 8 a.m. Tuesday, July 24, 2012, by a man who forced her into her car. (AP Photo/Nick Wass)
FILE - This June 18, 2002 file photo shows Cal Ripken Jr., right, owner of the Aberdeen IronBirds, and his brother, Bill, walking off the field with their mother, Vi, after she threw out the ceremomial first pitch prior to the team's season-opening debut at the new Ripken Stadium in Aberdeen, Md. Police say Cal Ripken Jr.'s mother is safe after an armed man abducted her from her home northeast of Baltimore. Aberdeen police say 74-year-old Vi Ripken was kidnapped between 7 a.m. and 8 a.m. Tuesday, July 24, 2012, by a man who forced her into her car. (AP Photo/Roberto Borea, File)
ABERDEEN, Md. (AP) ? Cal Ripken Jr.'s 74-year-old mother was found with her hands bound and blindfolded in the back seat of her car Wednesday after being kidnapped at gunpoint at her home outside Baltimore a day earlier, police and friends said.
Investigators do not know the kidnapper's motive and there was no ransom demand for Vi Ripken's release, Aberdeen Police Chief Henry Trabert said at a news conference.
The gunman forced Ripken into her silver Lincoln Continental between 7 a.m. and 8 a.m. Tuesday, police said. She was found unharmed but shaken about 6:15 a.m. Wednesday near her home in Aberdeen, about 30 miles northeast of Baltimore, where her son's Ripken Baseball complex is located.
When asked if police believe the kidnapper knew who he was abducting, Trabert did not answer, saying police don't know the motive or if the suspect any ties to the Ripken family.
"This case is still brand new," Trabert said.
Next-door neighbor Gus Kowalewski said he spoke with Vi Ripken later Wednesday morning. The 72-year-old retired autoworker said Ripken told him the gunman tied her hands and put a blindfold on her, but said he wouldn't hurt her.
"He lit cigarettes for her, they stopped for food," Kowalewski said. "He said, 'I'm not going to hurt you. I'm going to take you back,' and that's what he did."
Kowalewski said Ripken told him the gunman originally planned to put tape over her eyes.
"But he didn't do that because she said 'please don't do that 'cause I'm claustrophobic,'" he said.
Instead, the gunman put some type of mask or blinders on her, and she could see somewhat out the sides, he said.
Investigators determined that Ripken was missing Tuesday night after talking to another police department.
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Public release date: 22-Jul-2012
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