******Not for the Faint of Heart******
******I Won't Discuss Gruesome Details******
Hey everyone! Sorry for the delay; as you can imagine, I’m coming off a long work week!
Sorry, the article keeps going under review. I had to make edits.
The following story I want to share is about my first legitimate kidnapping. I say legitimate because many calls regarding kidnapping are few and far between. I don’t say this to be insensitive; it is just the truth. Many abduction calls end up being domestic violence or a family disturbance. There is also parental kidnapping which is indeed very serious. But it is rare when a call comes in, and the victim doesn’t know the kidnapper. However, on the other hand, these types of calls are becoming more frequent, unfortunately, with the human trafficking that seems to be on the rise.
Anyway, this day started as any other day. I came to work early, around 16:00 (4 pm). It wasn’t too busy, so when I got this call, it threw me off guard.
The call started as an Unknown Problem. We legitimately don’t know what is happening when we get these calls, and neither does the call taker. But they are working to try and figure it out.
The call notes on this one read: I have a friend kidnapped and being held, hostage. I don’t have an address but I know the general cross streets. I’m calling from South America.
So right there, I knew there was something off about this call. The one thought that came to my mind was human trafficking.
More notes continued: This is my friend's name (can't name). They are using a phone left behind at the kidnappers' house. They have a lot of guns, and she made it to the house's main floor.
On my end, I had officers going immediately and relayed to them all the details of this call that was coming in. Even they knew something was different about this call.
At this point, communication was all over the place, but somehow we were making it work. The call-taker was talking to a friend in South America. The kidnapped friend was talking to the friend in Spanish, so this person translated and relayed the information to the call-taker. The call-taker was relaying the information to me, and I relayed the information to the police.
The person kidnapped had no idea where they were. At this point, I had officers in the area looking at the cross streets they gave us. The police asked me if I had any more information. I didn’t, but I realized I must start thinking critically and outside the box.
So, I started typing in the notes: Can this person get to a window safely? That answer was yes. The next question I asked was, what do they see outside the window? Describe it. It read: a red car, a silver truck, and tall trees.
In my mind, I thought, that’s not good enough. Think of something else and quick.
My heart rate skyrocketed.
The person stuck in the house also mentioned they didn’t know when the kidnappers would be back, and they said repeatedly they were going to kill them.
I was scared, but I had to remain professional. Someone had to find them.
I started asking more questions in the following line of notes. It read: Can you see the address across the streets? What are the numbers? The answer was: It was too far away, and there were bars on the windows.
That right there was a pivotal point for me. Bars on the windows are unusual. I relayed everything I had to the police officers, thinking I might have had a valid lead, but then the police came back explaining that they saw bars on the windows of many houses in their area. So just like that, I was back to square one.
I started asking my following line of questioning in the notes; it read: What do they see on the porch? Can they see the patio from the window? I waited for an answer, and it read: Yes, a grill, a wooden ramp, and a green mop in a yellow bucket are right outside the window.
I gave all that information to the police officers, and one finally said, “I see it. I see the green mop. I will drive out of the area if the kidnappers are there.”
At that point, my heart stopped, and at the same time, I was so relieved.
The following line of notes I typed was: Police see the house. Stay put until otherwise told to do so. The call-taker wrote: They saw police drive by and started crying because they passed the house. I typed: They were still close but leaving the area in case the kidnappers returned.
In the meantime, the officers were calling for more resources. They didn’t know precisely who they were dealing with and could be outnumbered quickly.
Remember, there are many different human trafficking groups, and each one should not be underestimated. The person already told us they had a lot of guns.
At this point, the specialty police officers were added to this call but were still ways out.
Then out of nowhere, notes started being added to the call again. They read: I see one of their trucks down the street. They're coming back. One of them is out of the truck talking to the other.
I gave that information to the police officer, and he said, “If they are in a position to run, tell them to take a right and run to my car. Tell them to stick beside the house, trees, and bushes.”
I typed that exact information into the call. A couple of minutes went by, and I was in sheer panic. I thought, did they make it? Do they see the police officer? Somebody, please talk to me!
Finally, the police officer said, “I have the two victims with me; we're driving out of the area until the others arrive.”
I also gave that information to the other responding officers.
The officer came over the radio again, saying, “I need a Spanish translator over here; there are possibly more victims in the house.”
I made sure to get all that started as quickly as I could.
Specialty units arrived and started planning how to approach the house and deal with the kidnappers.
This particular call took about six hours to complete. The police took three kidnappers into custody and found two more victims in the house's basement. They were all human trafficking victims. To add another scary fact, the neighbors had no idea what was happening but wished they had and would have called in sooner.
Thank you all for letting me share!
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Nat🤍
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