In Argentina, armed criminals stole a pickup truck with a trailer motorhome carrying a family of six. Two children were left on the roadside, while the rest were held hostage. The vehicles were later found abandoned; the perpetrators remain at large.
Timeline of events
On the night of January 21, 2026, on Route 226 near Mar del Plata (Buenos Aires province), three armed criminals attacked a family of tourists from Mendoza traveling in a Toyota Hilux pickup with a motorhome trailer. According to sources, the family stopped to bathe the children when the assailants seized the vehicle at gunpoint.
At the time of the theft, the owner's wife and four children aged 2 to 11 were inside the cab and motorhome. Two older children (variously reported as 6 and 8 or 8 and 11 years old) were forced out onto the shoulder. The father, trying to stop the car, clung to the moving hitch while being threatened with a weapon. During negotiations under threat of death, the criminals released the wife and younger children and fled in the stolen vehicle.
Aftermath
Forty minutes later, police found the abandoned pickup and motorhome in the La Herradura and Hipódromo areas. The children left on the road were found unharmed. The stolen vehicles were found ransacked. The investigation is proceeding under the charge of "armed robbery." The perpetrators remain at large.