Police Thanked McDonald's Employees for Coming to a Customer's Aid Who Mouthed 'Help Me'
McDonald’s employees acted quickly on Christmas Eve to save a woman from what authorities say was a terrifying situation.
The woman, who has not been publicly identified, went into a McDonald’s in Lodi, CA, earlier this week and told an employee at the counter that she needed help. The woman told the staffer that the man she was traveling with had threatened to kill her, according to a post on the San Joaquin County Sheriff’s Office Facebook page. The woman also gave them the "license plate number of the car she was traveling in and asked staffers to hide her."
She then used the bathroom and tried to order food at the counter, but, according to the post, the man she was with approached her and ordered her to use the drive-thru instead.
“While in the drive thru, she mouthed to an employee, ‘HELP ME,’” the Facebook post continued. But help was already on the way. The McDonald's employees had called the police who arrived and managed to head the car off while it was still in the drive-thru lane. HuffPost reported that the restaurant is part of a Safe Place program that trains employees to look for the signs of distress and to help vulnerable people seeking safety.
Police found out the man she was with allegedly "had been violent with her in the past,” the post continued. “On this day, he told her to take him to visit his family and threatened her life, stating he would use a firearm.” The post also says there was a gun in the trunk of the car and that it was stolen out of state.
The suspect was identified as Eduardo Valenzuela and he was arrested on charges of making criminal threats, stolen property, and felony possession of a firearm, according to the Facebook post.
As for the woman, the sheriff's office said she's now safe.
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