A northern coffee bar owner was believed to have been kidnapped on Monday by a gang which then sent a mobile phone text message to his family demanding a half-a-million-euro ransom.
Paolo Friggi, 37, was snatched just before dawn on Monday while on his way to work at the family's bar in the village of Motta Visconti near Milan.
His captors sent Friggi's mother a text message at 4:20 using the victim's phone saying they wanted 500,000 euros in cash for his release.
The phone was later found abandoned together with Friggi's car not far from his home in the nearby town of Bereguardo.
Friggi is married with a three-year-old daughter.
Investigating magistrates immediately ordered the Friggi family's assets to be frozen.
An elderly friend of the Friggi family told reporters: "It's inconceivable. These people aren't millionaires, they're just normal, hard-working folk".
"We're all in shock because it's the first time that anything like this has happened," she said.
