A good Samaritan saved a 12-year-old girl from a kidnapping while the girl was walking to school in Santa Ana, California, on Wednesday and gave police information that led to the would-be kidnapper’s arrest.
Student Amy Martinez was walking to Lathrop Intermediate School when an allegedly homeless woman grabbed her in a bear hug and tried to drag her away while she struggled, KTLA reported. When Martinez screamed for help, a woman who had just dropped her child off at school saw her struggling and pulled over into a parking lot next to them.
The good Samaritan, who did not want to be identified, asked Martinez if she was OK, and when she said no, the woman started yelling, “She’s mine. Give her back,” the OC Register reported. The kidnapper let her go, and the Samaritan put Martinez in her car and drove to the school.
She made sure Martinez was safe and called police to give a description of the would-be kidnapper. Police arrested 34-year-old Claudia Hernandez-Diaz in the attempted abduction after searching the area, the OC Register reported.
Martinez’s mother Sandy Martinez was grateful to the Samaritan for helping her child.
“I’m glad she was there at the right time and the right spot,” she said, the Register reported. “But other people were seeing my daughter struggle and kicking and didn’t do anything. I’m just shocked.”
Sandra Martinez said her daughter won’t be walking to school alone anymore, the Register reported, but would be driven by a family member.
The good Samaritan attributed her actions to parental instinct.
“You’re a parent, you see somebody else’s child in danger, automatically you react as if it was yours,” she said, ABC7 reported.
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