Black River Falls (WQOW)—The woman James Newman and James Misleveck are accused of kidnapping told her story on Wednesday.
The men approached her car in the parking lot of the Ho Chunk Gaming, where she worked, about 5:30 last Wednesday morning.
They were armed with a shot gun and told her to give them the keys and get in the back seat.
Deb Lozano held a news conference today, accompanied by her husband and daughter.
"It was real and I survived it," Lozano said.
It was Lozano's worst nightmare, being kidnapped at gun point in a parking lot where she felt safe because of security.
"I kept thinking that my husband and my daughters and my family and my relatives didn't know where I was...or..didn't know I was gone or whether or not I'd be coming back," Lozano said.
Despite the situation, they had friendly conversations. They told her about hiding out in the woods and field.
"They were drinking water out of a creek so I told them that water was contaminated and they're probably going to get sick," she said. "'He said you think we're going to get sick ma'am?' and I said probably and I said if they get sick don't get sick in my truck because I don't want to clean up after all that crap so they kind of laughed."
Even though the two were nice, she was still afraid, and said she sat on her hands to keep them from shaking.
"He said he thought that I was hiding my jewelry," Lozano said. "'And he said ma'am we're not going to take your jewelry' and I said oh no your not I've earned these babies. I've been married for 33 years now you're going to have a fight. So they kind of laughed."
Since they were getting along so well, Lozano worked up the courage to ask the question on everyone's mind. Why escape with so little time left to serve?
"The younger one said that there was a Latin King (gang member) that was harassing him in there and the guards didn't do anything to stop it and that he couldn't take that any more and that he kind of feared for his own life in there," Lozano said.
Talking seemed to be working.
"I wanted to keep them going because I didn't want them to focus on that gun pointed at me," Lozano said.
What she did next, is truly remarkable.
"They had seen an elderly lady get out of her car and they were like go after that one and I was like you don't want to do that boys she might have a heart attack then you're going to have a murder charge," she said.
And then, just as quickly as it started it was over; and she was back into her husbands arms who has vowed to never let her out of his sight.
Deb believes that the reason she survived the ordeal is that she followed their directions, agreed to clean their cuts and even bought them cigarettes.
The only direction she didn't follow was when they released her and warned her not to call police immediately; she called for help right away.
