Fourth time's a charm

I don't know a whole lot abbout Spain, so I'm not sure if kidnappings are common there or not. If they're not, then this seems remarkably stupid.

A Spanish woman staged fake kidnappings of her son four times and got his father to pay her more than a million euros ($1.26 million) in ransom money, newspaper El Mundo reported Friday.

[...]

The father paid ransoms after the first three fake abductions without realizing the involvement of his son's mother, from whom he had separated. He became suspicious the fourth time and hired a private detective, El Mundo reported.

Oh, he became suspicious the fourth time, did he? The first three times his son was snatched, I guess he just figured the boy was prone to being kidnapped. I can just picture him getting the third ransom demand and thinking, "Well, here we go again."