A woman who was using the toilet in a petrol station in the US got a note from another woman who said she was being kidnapped and her phone had been taken away from her.
According to KSL, the anonymous woman from Cedar City, Utah, had stopped off to use the loo on 8 March when she was given the hastily written message which she was asked to pass along to the police.
"We were just on our way home from St. George and pulled over at that gas station, and I just went in to use the restroom," the woman, who was handed the scrap of paper with a warning on it, said.
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"When I came out, the lady just kind of flung the door open, she handed me the paper and said 'please give this to police'.
“I said 'Are you in trouble?' and she said 'Yes,' and I said 'Ok I’ll help you,'. Then she said, 'Give this to police I have to go, he’s waiting right outside, he’s right there' and she was like shaking."
After giving reassurances that she'd alert the police, the woman who raised the alarm spent a few minutes watching the other woman and the man she'd claimed had kidnapped her.
Pretending she was on her phone, the woman got a video of the alleged kidnapper and then saw them get into the same car, a Chevrolet Equinox, just as the other woman had written on her warning.
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Following the car so she could see the number plate, she then called the police and relayed the message.
A deputy from Iron County Sheriff's Office pulled the car over and saw that a woman inside was 'not behaving normally', and the 53-year-old man was arrested.
The woman in the car told officers she'd been in a relationship with him for 25 years and he had been driving her to work that morning when he changed the route and started accusing her of cheating on him.
She claimed he wouldn't let her out of the car and took her phone away so she couldn't call anyone, while court documents record that he struck her in the face with his hand 'causing lasting pain to her face and jaw'.
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When officers first pulled him over the 53-year-old produced a fake ID, but after being read his rights he allowed officers to look in his wallet which contained his actual ID.
The woman who'd been passed the message and called the police had pulled her car over further down the road as she wanted to make sure officers wouldn't let him drive off with the lady who said she'd been kidnapped.
“I was just more worried like 'What if she panics and says 'I’m fine,' - I just wanted to make sure the cops like... don’t let her go back with him, no matter what she says," the woman who wished to remain anonymous said.
The man has since been charged with aggravated kidnapping, assault, providing police false personal information, damage to a communication device, prohibited use of an identification card and driving without a license or permit.
Joe Harker