Pin for Torn Jacket Was Teen's Salvation
By MITCH STACY, Associated Press Writer
Tue Feb 27, 9:51 PM

BRADENTON, Fla. - Clay Moore's mother and stepfather don't want to think about what might have happened if they hadn't made him repair his ripped school uniform jacket instead of buying him a new one.

A safety pin from the torn jacket's sleeve _ and the 13-year-old's composure in frightening conditions _ freed him after a gunman kidnapped him, duct-taped his wrists and left him deep in thick woods 20 miles from home, the boy's stepfather said Tuesday.

Clay put the pin in his mouth, picked away at the tape and walked away hours after he was taken. He found a farmworker in a field and called his stepfather, Steve Kelle, from the man's phone, "as calm as if he was calling from a friend's house," Kelle said.

Clay's mother, Traci Kelle, recalled getting the call notifying her that Clay had been snatched as he stood with about a dozen children at a bus stop on Friday.

"I can't put into words how absolutely horrifying it was when we received the news," she said. "But I have to say when I got this phone call (that he was safe), it was the best thing that ever happened in my life."

Clay was abducted at his bus stop in Parrish, 40 miles south of Tampa, by a man authorities believe was 22-year-old Vicente Ignacio Beltran-Moreno. He is wanted on local warrants alleging armed kidnapping and aggravated assault and a federal warrant charging unlawful flight to avoid prosecution.

Investigators were trying to establish why Clay was targeted, but it appeared that he was selected at random.

Kelle, Clay's stepfather, said the boy told him he was nervously playing with the pin in the kidnapper's truck and put it in his mouth because "he just thought it would be helpful."

The gunman took the arts school student to a remote, wooded area, tied him up, stuck a sock in his mouth and left him.

Clay spit out the sock and the pin, and used a stick and his mouth to retrieve the fastener from the ground, Kelle said. He picked at the duct tape binding his wrists until he could get them loose.

"We are truly proud of Clay," Kelle said, standing next to the diminutive teen at a news conference. "He did an incredible job on his own. He kept his head about him."

Clay didn't speak to reporters and didn't appear too rattled by the dozen or so TV cameras. At one point as his stepfather spoke, the teen sat and held hands with his mother.

Manatee County Sheriff Charlie Wells said his agency is working with the FBI and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to track down Beltran-Moreno, who became the suspect after investigators took an artist's sketch of Clay's abductor to the migrant worker camps east of Bradenton. Several migrants said it was Beltran-Moreno, a former farmworker who still had many friends in the camps.

The truck suspected of being used in the kidnapping was found outside the home believed to be Beltran-Moreno's, detectives said. They also found a ransom note with threats, though they would not say where it was found or what it demanded.

Wells would not say where they think Beltran-Moreno, a native of Mexico, might be, but said he was "extremely optimistic" he would be caught.

I pretty sure carrying a knife, no matter what size, to school is not a good idea these days.