A 16 -year-old girl was abducted at gunpoint while waiting for her school bus in a suburb of Detroit, but she saved herself with the help of a quick-thinking gas station clerk.
The unidentified suspect capped off the kidnapping by taking the girl to a Sunoco gas station in Detroit about 30 minutes after he snatched her from the curb. He ordered the teen to buy him cigarettes.
She was scared, he was mean, and the scene didn't add up for the clerk, Abdulrahman Abohatem.
And then she mouthed one word.
Help.
“When he ask her to pay for the cigarettes, I stop and go, ‘There’s something wrong.’ And she mouthed talked to me, like with no sound, ‘Help,'” Abohatem told local news outlet WXYZ.
What did the courageous clerk do? He didn't wait for them to leave and dial 911. He didn't hide and hope for help.
He pushed the teen behind him, and kicked the kidnapper.
“I go out, I kick him out, I ask the girl 'go behind me,'” Abohatem recalled.
It turned out that police were already nearby because someone had seen the kidnapping and dialed 911. "I'm walking to my bus stop, and I just see somebody snatching this girl," an unidentified caller told police.
Police tracked the victim's phone with the help of friends with whom she was sharing her location. And officers arrived just as Abohatem shoved him out the door.
"I see the police outside. I point to him -- 'That's the guy,'" Abohatem recounted.
Michigan gas station clerk saves 16-year-old girl abducted by stranger after she mouthed 'help' https://t.co/QIuEOlCMcn pic.twitter.com/wSqx57H5RP
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"The suspect is still in custody and charges are pending with the Wayne County Prosecutors Office," the Hamtramck Police Department told ABC News on Wednesday. They added the alleged kidnapping was random, and the suspect and teen didn't know each other.
Hamtramck Mayor Adam Alharbi said in a press conference that the suspect "had a history of rape charges, and we will make sure that he gets what he deserves."
Her abductor stopped at a gas station
Her abductor stopped at a gas station
