Amy screamed for help as the woman continued to hold her tightly, telling her in Spanish not to cry—even though Amy hadn’t been crying. "She was saying that the demons are coming, Satan is here," Amy remembered. Just as things seemed dire, Amy spotted another woman driving by. This bystander, who had just dropped her child off at a nearby high school, quickly realized something was wrong when she noticed Amy struggling. “Those were the signs that something wasn’t right,” the good Samaritan, who wished to remain anonymous, told KABC-TV, adding that she immediately acted to help the young girl.
Woman foils kidnapping attempt of 12-year-old girl by pretending to be her mom
Woman's motherly instincts kicked in, she told the suspect, 'That's my child, give her back to me.'
Thanks to the quick actions of a brave bystander, 12-year-old Amy Martinez narrowly avoided a harrowing kidnapping attempt. Amy recounted the 2018 incident to KTLA, explaining that she was on her way to Lathrop Intermediate School in Santa Ana when a homeless woman suddenly grabbed her. “I thought that I was never going to see my mom or my family again," she recalled. Amy described how the woman approached her, wrapped her in a bear hug, and began leading her away.
Good Samaritan foils kidnapping of girl walking to school in Santa Ana https://t.co/qumFXQVE2q
— ABC7 Eyewitness News (@ABC7) February 22, 2018
Woman Prevents Girl’s Kidnapping by Pretending to be Her Motherhttps://t.co/8UYCPJQgt4
— Good News Network (@goodnewsnetwork) February 27, 2018
"I'll never forget the way she looked at me," the woman told NBC Los Angeles. "Her eyes were screaming for help." She quickly pulled over and asked the child if she was OK, and Amy said no. "She doesn't know if it's a mother having an issue with her daughter, but something doesn't look right because the suspect is homeless and her hair's messy,'' Bertagna said of the stranger. "So she makes a turn, comes around and asked the young victim, 'Are you OK?' and the victim looked at her and shook her head no, and she could see the fright in her eyes.''
Woman Arrested After Allegedly Trying to Kidnap 12-Year-Old Girl in Santa Ana; ‘Hero’ Thwarts Attempt https://t.co/vOktZbGpFF pic.twitter.com/StJuAtl15s
— KTLA (@KTLA) February 22, 2018
Understanding the urgency, the woman quickly devised a plan. "She said she had five seconds to think of something to save this child," said Bertagna. "She told the suspect she was the child's mother and demanded her back." Bertagna added that the woman's motherly instincts kicked in, and after insisting three times, the suspect finally let Amy go.
"I was basically yelling, 'Let her go,' so as soon as my voice changed, she let her go and Amy walked into my car," the good Samaritan said. The rescuer called the police and the child's family as she drove Amy to school. "It's a place where there's a lot of cars and not one stopped until this lady came, in our eyes, she's our angel," said Cinthia Esparza, the girl's aunt. Based on a detailed description provided by the rescuer, police arrested a 34-year-old woman named Claudia Cruz Hernandez on suspicion of kidnapping a minor younger than 14. Praising the woman who stopped the possible kidnapping, Bertagna said: "We always say if you see something say something. Well, she saw something and did something."
Amy's mom also thanked the unnamed woman for stepping in to save her daughter. "I just want to say thank you so much and I hope that there's more people like you out there," she said. Meanwhile, the rescuer said she would do it again if she had to. "You're a parent, you see somebody else's child in danger, automatically you react as if it was yours," she said.
This article originally appeared 3 years ago.
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