Maurizio Pastore, a 62-year-old lorry driver, and his wife, Serenella Luciani, 52, begged their 27-year-old daughter not to marry the man, who is 14 years older, the Veneto edition of Corriere reported.
They are said to have been worried about the age difference as well as his alleged drug-taking history.
Defiant, the daughter went ahead and married the 41-year-old at a civil ceremony in March, without any guests.
With the help of their younger son, named by the newspaper as Mirko, the couple devised a carefully-orchestrated plan to kidnap their son-in-law.
Wearing beanie hats and equipped with binoculars, a rope, tape, a knife and pepper spray, the three awaited their prey from 6.30am in the carpark of a supermarket in Trissino, a town of 8,000, where they knew their daughter had a doctor’s appointment in a surgery above the store at 8.30am.
They divided themselves between two cars, with the father and son in one with tinted windows, and the mother keeping watch from another.
They carefully monitored the couple’s movements, and when the moment was right to seize their target, the father and son pepper-sprayed him before tying a rope around his neck and taping him to the seat of the car.
The man was then subjected to a severe beating, the newspaper reported, before being forced to sign a document claiming he was a bad husband and would divorce his wife immediately.
The three have now been arrested.
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