Violet Ripken, the mother of Hall of Fame baseball player Cal Ripken Jr., is safe at home with her family after being abducted at gunpoint in Aberdeen, Md. on Tuesday.
The abductor approached Ripken, 74, with a gun and forced her into her 1998 Lincoln Town Car and drove off Tuesday morning between 7 and 8 a.m. According to a Baltimore television station, someone saw Ripken and the abductor, who said his mom was sick and he was taking her to the hospital. The witness, who didn’t believe the story, called the cops.
Police issued a media alert and received a tip Tuesday night. Around 6:15 this morning, police found Ripken tied up and blindfolded in the back seat of her car not far from her home. She was examined by medical personnel and released to be with her family.
“As you now know, our mother was abducted at gunpoint from her home yesterday morning,” the Ripken family said in a statement. “This has been a very trying time for our family, but we are grateful and relieved that mom is back with us, safe and healthy.”
“We want to thank everyone for their tremendous support, especially all of the law enforcement agencies that worked so hard and quickly,” the statement said. “This is an ongoing investigation, so we hope everyone understands that we cannot comment further at this time. Thank you.”
The FBI, Hartford County Sheriff’s Department, Maryland State Police and Baltimore County Police are currently looking for the man, reportedly in his late 30s-to-early 40s. He was last seen wearing a light-colored shirt, camouflage pants and eyeglasses.
Ripken is baseball’s all-time Iron Man. He retired from baseball in October, 2001 after 21 seasons with the Baltimore Orioles. His name appears in the record books repeatedly, most notably as one of only eight players in history to achieve 400 home runs and 3,000 hits. On July 29, 2007 he was inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame. Cal received the 3rd highest percentage of votes in history, collecting the highest vote total ever by the BBWAA.
In 1995, Ripken broke Lou Gehrig’s Major League record for consecutive games played (2,130).
