14 DAY TRIAL // A woman whose Internet connection dropped when she needed to do a month's work in six days apparently took hostage the technical support employee who came to fix the problem. Carol Sinclair, a 53-year-old Canadian actress and playwright, called her Internet provider when she realized that she couldn’t manage to access the Web.
The company said that nobody was available at the time of the call, but, changing her voice and pretending to be a man, as she said she did, the woman managed to eventually have someone sent to her house. The 21-year-old David Scott, described by the actress as a "huge, strapping young man," who was sent to fix her connection, said that nothing was wrong with the wires and that the problem was definitely related to the computer.
Because repairing a computer was not part of his attributions, the man decided to go back to his office. From here on, the stories of the two don't agree anymore. Scott says that the woman told him that he could not go, as he was being held hostage. He also mentions that she hinted at the fact that she had a gun and that she would not hesitate to use it, if the situation required it. Seeing as how things weren’t so bright, he thought of a way out – he said that he would go to his van to pick up a tool necessary to repair the computer. When he got to the car, he ran right off the bat.
The woman tells a totally different story. She admits to have mentioned the word "hostage," but she also says that it hasn't been used in its true meaning. Also, she claims that the man went outside to call one of his colleagues to come help him, and not because he needed a tool. "I don't want to hold you hostage, but would you mind hanging around until the other technician arrives so that the two of you can sort it out." Sinclair recalls to have said, according to Globe and Mail.
After she was interrogated by five officers, the woman was released, but one of the bail conditions stipulated that she could not get in touch with any of the people working with the Internet company until the next hearing, in late September.