Kidnapped Woman Screams, Scares Off Man Who Jumped in Her Car

Screaming for help did the trick for a woman who endured a short but harrowing ride down Highway 101 with a man who jumped in her car Thursday afternoon in Novato, police said.

A 62-year-old woman was on the Atherton Avenue overpass in the city’s northern outskirts when a man waved her down and got her to stop her car at about 12:30 p.m., Lt. Keith Heiden said. “He was yelling about a fictional woman in labor, so she stopped,” Heiden said.

But the man jumped into the passenger seat and ordered her to drive on southbound 101, turning the incident into a kidnapping case, according to the police report. She drove 5 ½ miles south and got off at the Alameda del Prado exit, coming to a halt at a bus stop next to the freeway. Heiden said the woman screamed for help and the man ran away.

Police received help from the California Highway Patrol and the Marin County Sheriff’s Office after receiving a call about the incident at 12:39 p.m., Heiden said. Just more than 1 hour later, the man was located near an apartment complex at Alameda del Prado and Hector Lane in Ignacio, about one mile north of where the woman had stopped the car.

Police arrested Mattie Isaac Forga, 40, of San Francisco at 1:43 p.m. He was booked at Marin County Jail on suspicion of kidnapping and faces a bail of $100,000.

The woman told police she was intimidated by the man's 5-foot-10, 199-pound size and his violence demeanor.