Three weeks after Beer Tycoon Heineken, 60, and his chauffeur, Ab Doderer, 57, were abducted, one of the largest manhunts in Dutch history had stumbled upon a happy ending.

A kidnaped beer baron is freed

The police were just about to give up their search of the lonely Amsterdam warehouse. Then, by chance, one of them spotted a lock on the corrugated-tin wall at the back of the building. The opening led to a false wall, complete with a…

The multimillionaire chairman and majority stockholder of the brewery that bears his name, Alfred H. (“Freddie”) Heineken was abducted, his kidnappers demanded a ransom of $8.3 million.

A beer tycoon is abducted

He did everything possible to protect himself against kidnapers. Hidden TV cameras guarded his Amsterdam offices; high fences, security officers and vicious dogs protected his villa in Noordwijk, a seaside town 22 miles away. Last month his only daughter was married in secret, and though…