Something very similar to this happened to me, it has colored everything in my life. I was 19 and coming home after a night in Little 5 with BFF K. We were in separate cars and heading home to Sandy Springs. As I was driving down Roswell Rd I saw a young woman being physically pulled into the back seat of a car. I don't remember thinking, I just remember pulling my car behind them, turning on my brights and cracking my window. This was way before cell phones.
The woman ran toward my car and the man followed slowly behind her. I asked if she needed help, she just stared at me with a panicked look on her face. The man was almost to my window and I have no idea where this came from but I stared at him like a crazy person and in a raised but surprisingly calm voice I said
"GET THE FU*K AWAY FROM MY CAR NOW!!!!"....... it worked. He raised his hands and moved back.
I asked her again if she needed me to take her somewhere. She just said "please". This whole time my window was just slightly cracked and my heart was racing. The man came back quickly this time and put his face close to my window. I think he was saying something like everything was fine but I really can't remember. I again stated very firmly and calmly that I was not speaking to him and he needed to move away from my car.....NOW. I remember using NOW a lot. I did not want this man anywhere near me or her. I told her to get in the passenger seat and we left. I drove her into one of the fancy Sandy Springs neighborhoods. Turns out she was an au pair. I can't remember exactly where she was from but she had an accent. She said she was at a club with friends and they left with some other guys. This guy said he would get her home safely and she believed him. He started to get physical with her and she had the good sense to attempt to get out of the car at a red light. Unfortunately he grabbed her and that's when I showed up.
Yes, it ended well, no one was hurt and both myself and the girl learned a very valuable lesson.
This story has always stayed with me but not for the reason you may think.....this happened on a Saturday night on a major road in a major city. Traffic was not heavy but it wasn't light either. Other people saw what was happening.......adults saw what was happening.......men saw what was happening and just kept driving. That is what really stays with me.
Whenever I see some horrible story showing someone in pain or being hurt and people just watching I don't fully understand what is happening.
I do not understand doing nothing, standing by and watching something horrible or potentially horrible happen.
What these kids did is amazing and heroic but that kind of makes me sad. Now before everyone gets all up in arms, it makes me sad because shouldn't we all do this?
Shouldn't we all try to help when we see something bad? Shouldn't a story like this be the rule and not the exception?
http://www.nbcdfw.com/news/local/Two-Teens-Help-Rescue-Kidnapping-Victim-222446121.html
Two Teens Help Rescue Kidnapping Victim
Dramatic 911 call released in Dallas kidnapping case
By Scott Gordon
| Thursday, Sep 5, 2013 | Updated 9:24 AM CDT
A woman who was kidnapped and forced into her car by a gunman in downtown Dallas two weeks ago managed to get the attention of two teenagers in a nearby car by mouthing the words, "Help me," according to a dramatic 911 call released Wednesday.
The teens called police and officers rescued the woman within minutes. The 911 tape of the incident and a video recording from a sheriff's deputy's dashboard camera were released Wednesday after NBC 5 filed an open records request.
"Yes, I'm on the highway," Aaron Arias first told a Kaufman County Sheriff's Office dispatcher. "I'm witnessing a robbery; not a robbery -- a kidnapping."
Arias, a 19-year-old college student, and Jamal Harris, 17, a Seagoville high school student, noticed the woman in the back seat of a car at a stoplight in Seagoville.
"It's me and another guy, so we're checking out the girl in the backseat because, we're like, 'OK, she's kind of attractive,'" Arias said. "And then, all of the sudden, you know, the guy is turned back, looking at us."
The woman, 25, was kidnapped on Aug. 22 near Bryan Street after she left a downtown office building. About an hour later, from the backseat of her car, she drew the attention of Arias and Harris.
The woman looked panicked and was "saying, 'Help me,' or something, whispering it," Arias told the 911 operator.
The teens followed the woman's car down U.S. 175 until police caught up with them in Kaufman.
"Oh my God, I'm hoping the car behind me is a police officer," Arias said. "Nope, it's not. Oh my God."
But within seconds, officers arrived and pulled over the car with the woman and the man accused of kidnapping her.
"Thank God. You guys are awesome," Arias said. "Oh my God. Oh my God. Get him! Oh my God."
The suspect, Charles Atkins Lewis Jr., remains in jail on $50,000 bond. He is charged with aggravated kidnapping.
The woman was checked by paramedics but was unhurt.
Arias, a freshman at Texas A&M in Texarkana, ironically got a tattoo of the comic book antihero Deadpool the day before, he said in a telephone interview.
Arias said he met the woman at the scene after the rescue.
"She hugs us," he remembered. "I would describe it as the best hug I have ever gotten."
He said he hopes to stay in contact with the woman but doesn't want to interfere with the investigation or court case.
Asked whether he considered himself a hero, he said, "She says we saved her life. I guess you could say we did. But I don't want to be that person who says they're a hero."
Editor's Note: The original version of this story said the woman was kidnapped Aug. 25. The date should have read Aug. 22. We regret the error.
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