April 30, 2026
Gas Station Clerk Saves Teen From Kidnapper, Snapchat Leads Police To Suspect
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RSS Feed This true crime story reads like a movie script! A judge called the suspect in this case the “ultimate” risk to the community. On April 13th, a 16-year-old girl who had already been sexually assaulted after being abducted at gunpoint from her school bus stop, mouthed the world “help” to a gas station attendant who rushed into action. It was his brave moves along with the victim’s friends’ Snapchat app that led police straight to the teen, allowing them to arrest a suspect who already had a history of rape charges.
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00:00:02
Speaker 1: Hey, there are folks.
00:00:03
Speaker 2: The crime and the rescue read like a Hollywood movie script, but this is the thing I took away from it. Make sure you know where your kids are at all times, no matter if it's Life three sixty or Snapchat. And with that, welcome to this episode of Baby and TJ Presents Brope. This is a fascinating story that had a that had a really happy and almost Hollywood ending, and you got a hero as a gas station attendant. But parents need to listen to this one.
00:00:36
Speaker 3: This is a story that every parent needs to hear. And today there was an update. We are recording this on April thirtieth. The man who has been charged with the rape and kidnapping of a sixteen year old girl who was waiting for her school bus at the school bus stop, who was taken at gunpoint. This man was in court today where a judge denied him bond and said that he was the ultimate risk of the community.
00:01:07
Speaker 1: This man.
00:01:08
Speaker 3: We were talking about his forty eight year old Donald James Joseph Arthur Fields and thank god for a gas station attendant and Snapchat.
00:01:17
Speaker 2: So robes are gonna walk folks through this particular crime and as horrible as it sounds. We talk about a teenage girl kidnapped, Yes, she was sexually assaulted. Trust us, folks, it does have a happy ending here. This is a horrific story when you hear initially those details, but Robes this is this is a of all the horrible stuff going on out there, and there was a horrible individual at least involved in this one. Rod. It's such a reminder there are good people out.
00:01:45
Speaker 3: There, There are heroes, There are there are heroes out there. And the hero of this story was a you many immigrant working the register at a Detroit Sunoco gas station.
00:01:59
Speaker 1: You know, we have had a lot.
00:02:00
Speaker 3: Of stories about immigrants from different parts of the world being demonized. This is a story where I am so and we are so happy to discuss somebody who could barely speak English.
00:02:13
Speaker 1: And he says this English is tough for him.
00:02:16
Speaker 3: But you know what, he knows what word he heard or what word he saw mouthed this sixteen year old girl who was standing before him with a kidnapper behind her, mouthed the word help to him.
00:02:29
Speaker 1: And he could understand that, and he understood he.
00:02:32
Speaker 2: Only needed to know one English word ropes to say, quite possibly save this girl's life. So let's go back ropes. Was it Detroit proper, just outside outside of Detroit, Okay, in the day, this wasn't.
00:02:45
Speaker 1: The April thirteenth is when the crime happens.
00:02:48
Speaker 2: Okay, And when we say crime, you go back roll. This is a parent's horror, yes, story, this is the worst case scenario. Your child disappears.
00:02:57
Speaker 3: Yes, she is waiting and we don't have her name because she is a sexual assault victim. She's sixteen years old. But she was waiting for her school bus. She even had a friend who was there at the school bus stop waiting with her. She thankfully was able to report to police what she witnessed. But she saw this man and I'll just say his last name again because again Donald James Joseph Arthur Field's. But she saw Fields forcing her friend at gunpoint into his van. It happened very quickly and they drove away. She immediately called nine one one, but she was only able to give a little like a basic description, So that is when police were eventually called to the scene to try and figure out where she might have been. In the meantime, this horrific man, according to prosecutors and police, raped and assaulted this young girl in his van. Then he drives to a gas station.
00:03:56
Speaker 1: So he's going to help me there.
00:03:57
Speaker 2: Yes, what's the time frame? How long has he been with the girl at this point?
00:04:02
Speaker 1: I don't know that TikTok, TikTok. But it's all within an hour of Oh yeah, okay, that's the thing.
00:04:09
Speaker 2: I didn't know if this is over a large afternoon several.
00:04:11
Speaker 1: Hours very quickly.
00:04:12
Speaker 3: So now police are tracking this sixteen year old with her friend's phones through the snapchap ask. Okay, so now police are able to see where this sixteen year old girl is because her friends have her location.
00:04:30
Speaker 2: Okay, let's stop their ropes. Every parent listening right now, we all think it's weird, don't we. Your girls, My saveine like, why are you? They won't let they don't want their parents to track them, but their friends know exactly where they were, where they are all.
00:04:46
Speaker 1: The time I've had this conversation with you.
00:04:47
Speaker 3: My kids were a little bit older when I even was aware of an ability to track them, and they got to a point and they are adults now and they're like, Mom, we don't want you tracking us. I honored, but I honor that because I know that at least ten of their friends track them, so I know if anything were to happen, I know who to call.
00:05:09
Speaker 1: I know who to ask.
00:05:11
Speaker 3: Where is my daughter, and they will be able to tell me exactly at least where her phone is. So that is certainly helpful to at least know that I've got that going for me in the sense that I know where she is because her friends know where she is.
00:05:27
Speaker 1: And that is exactly what police were able to do.
00:05:30
Speaker 3: They were able to get onto snapchat on her friend's phone apps and they were able to find where they were. So now police are heading to this Sonoco gas station just outside of Detroit. At the same time, this man who is now being charged and we'll get into all of this, actually, for whatever reason, forced this team to pay for his cigarettes. Thank god he did this. So she is up at this cash register trying to pay for her attackers cigarettes, and she mouthed the word help to the gas station attendant.
00:06:07
Speaker 2: This is a movie. Shit, We've seen this scenario in movies before at at a gas station, and it happened. I give her credit, I give him credit her being smart enough to do that.
00:06:20
Speaker 1: Good God, that's scary. But she went for it.
00:06:23
Speaker 3: And so what happened was this this you many immigrant who could barely speak English, knew what help meant? He and I have to give him. I get chills thinking about this because this look he didn't know what he was dealing with. He came out from behind the protective glass, stepped in between Fields and the teen, and he said, I kicked him. I said get out, and I told the girl get behind me. And as he was doing that, Fields then ran. He chickened out. He ran to his van and guess what, this gas station attendant was chasing him.
00:06:57
Speaker 1: Look can you see the chills on me?
00:06:59
Speaker 3: Chasing him to go make sure he doesn't get away, as police were arriving to the scene because of the snapchat app.
00:07:09
Speaker 1: You can't make that up.
00:07:10
Speaker 2: I don't even know where to start with this. First start with him. First, start with her robes. She took an opportunity when she saw it. She knew she was in danger, She knew she was in trouble, and she took the opportunity. Good for her. Right. She didn't call the scene, she didn't fight him. She waited till she had help, and she got help. Give her credit for that. Give him credit I don't know this guy at all, but Robes, he sounds like a guy who is family oriented. Yeah, he sounds like a guy who's got plenty of family and aunts and uncles and nieces and nephews and kids around. It just instinct for him to do that. Robes, you got a sixteen year old kid that needs help. There is some that just there are some Robes that is. I don't know how old he is. Do you have any idea how.
00:07:58
Speaker 3: Any kids he has or owe? His name and I actually I've avoided saying it because it's really hard to pronounce, but no, but I want to try it, abdul rahaman abu Hatem. And he is being hailed a hero. And he said, I struggle with English, but I knew what help meant. He was awarded a night medal from the school where the teen attends for his quick thinking.
00:08:21
Speaker 1: And he has been lauded.
00:08:23
Speaker 3: I mean the local papers, the local television stations, they have all told him he's hero. He's been given awards, he has been given his due. But he rightfully so that is a scary thing to do. He had taken the girl at gunpoint, so he absolutely, yes, took his own life and look you imagine like if you're a gas station attendant, you know, I always think it's a little unnerving when you go to pay for gas or you go into the convenience store. You see when you're walking out of the door, the measuring stick. You see it shows you six feet five feet six feet.
00:08:59
Speaker 1: You know that that is for a suspect.
00:09:02
Speaker 3: So if a gas station attendant gets robbed or there's anything that happens, they actually it happens so often that most gas stations actually have a hype marker when you're walking out the door so that they can see and describe to police the suspects that come into their stations.
00:09:18
Speaker 1: That's how often these guys are under threat.
00:09:20
Speaker 2: They wrote. They do their job behind protective glass.
00:09:25
Speaker 1: That's a very good point. That's all you need to know.
00:09:28
Speaker 3: But it's just like I my heart warmed when I read this story about this man doing this for a complete stranger.
00:09:37
Speaker 1: But he saw a sixteen year old girl in need.
00:09:39
Speaker 2: I can't imagine how much he's seen that he chose not to get involved with. There's plenty of stuff he knows, and look, no offense, love y'all Detroit, but a Detroit gas station. Who okay, I mean it's just outside of Detroit. Eh. He's seen some stuff, is what I'm saying. I am sure he's seen some stuff. He chose this, and I am fascinated by this guy. But it's instinct. There are plenty of parents out there, dads with daughters that will hear this and applaud him. But it's almost bro it just is what you do. There's an instinct. There are just some things you do. You can't help it. If I know this guy's got a big family, I.
00:10:19
Speaker 1: Just know he does, right I wait to hear I just know he does.
00:10:24
Speaker 3: You.
00:10:24
Speaker 1: I didn't even think about that.
00:10:25
Speaker 3: But you make such a good point, and it's so interesting because look, you have Sabine now, and so many people listening to this have young daughters, maybe driving for the first time, but certainly waiting for a school bus.
00:10:38
Speaker 1: And in Sabine's case, I think she took.
00:10:40
Speaker 3: The subway for the first time with a friend, you know, starting to go out and venture out.
00:10:45
Speaker 1: And do we trust the people around her. Absolutely not.
00:10:49
Speaker 3: And you want to hope that they're equipped with street sense and they know what to do and their friends know what to do. So you have to also credit her friend for immediately calling nine to one one for pulling up her Snapchat app and saying, this is where my friend is. I can see her location right now. This is when technology is our friend. This is when technology. We talk a lot about all the negative impacts and all the things that it's doing to society, but in this moment, in these types of scary situations, technology is life saving.
00:11:21
Speaker 2: Roles. Okay, I snapchat drives me crazy. TikTok drives me crazy because I see my child sitting and scrolling and doing this whole thing. Whees. This is one There is beauty in it and I appreciate it. And this is one of those uses of snapchat and social media that doesn't I think, get enough attention. It's true and highlight it is that there is a protection there. And as a parent, as your kid maybe wants to distance himself or herself from you, with these things, they got twenty people who know exact exactly where they are all the time. It's a robes. This is I love the story. I hate Snapchat a lot of days because of Samin, but this is one where I'm like, baby, go ahead, do your thing, let your friends follow you.
00:12:14
Speaker 1: I love this. I agree.
00:12:16
Speaker 3: I even though my daughters won't let me follow them, I am grateful that they have allowed some of their friends to follow them because if worst case scenario happened in a situation like this, to know where they are is literally the difference between life and death. When we come back, we're going to tell you about this forty eight year old suspect who is a third time sexual assault offender. And to think that this all happened around seven a m. In the morning, parents, this is absolutely a wake up call. Welcome back, everybody to Amy and TJ Presents. Oftentimes, when we talk about crimes and we talk about cases, they don't have happy endings. Yes, this sixteen year old we've been talking about was sexually assaulted. That is horrific, But she is alive. She is here to tell her story, and it is because of the bravery of a gas station clerk and the technology that led police straight to where she was after she had been abducted. I mean, this abduct abduction happened seven am on a Monday on April thirteenth. Imagine how many people have their kids seven am on a Monday, sixteen years old waiting to get on her school bus just outside of Detroit. I don't know that you are necessarily concerned other kids are at the school bus stop.
00:13:54
Speaker 1: You can't imagine. But there is actually surveillance video.
00:13:56
Speaker 3: So in terms of the case that's building against this repeated they have police have surveillance video showing the moment that he approached her, put a handgun to her back, and forced her into a van. I mean that is brazen in front of another student. And again surveillance footage. They had cameras in the area showing the entire thing happening. But thank god, her cell phone was being tracked from almost the get go, actually from the beginning, because her friend pulled up Snapchat and boom.
00:14:32
Speaker 1: She knew exactly where her friend was.
00:14:35
Speaker 2: The criminals not know this. Now she has a phone on her. Every teenager has a phone on them. Every teenager is. I would argue robes being tracked, not just you. We have to call Apple and they can track down do it. No, not that you can instantly. There is every teenager. I would argue, robes right now can instantly be tracked by somebody in their surface.
00:15:00
Speaker 3: Yes, And I think it's we've talked before you're like, isn't it creepy that your friends know exactly where you are? Like, I've seen my girls pull up their apps they can see, oh, look my friend is just around the corner, or my friends in Finland, whatever. But it does seem creepy, But my god, it is useful in moments like this.
00:15:18
Speaker 1: And look, this was a bad dude. This is so rare. We always talk about random acts of violence.
00:15:23
Speaker 3: Hardly ever happen, but when they do, and if they happen to you, it's devastating. And this man had done this before. He so by the way, he is being charged with kidnapping, two counts of first degree criminal sexual conduct, felonious assault, three counts of felony firearm, and a felon in possession of a firearm. He's being charged as a third time habitual offender. As we mentioned, he has done this before. But today his bond was continued. No way this guy is getting out, and the judge made a very specific point to say, you are the ultimate risk to the community. You are not getting out of jail before your trial. So a preliminary hearing is scheduled from May thirteenth. But it does seem like there is DNA evidence in this case. There is surveillance video, There is the gas station clerk attendant, There is this sixteen year old victim, and there is the friend who was there at the bus stop when this happened. There are images of his face. I gotta say, comparing it with the person who's in court. They got their guy, and so this is going to be and look, we got to hope that the justice system prevails here where somebody who has committed a heinous sexual assault for the third time. I don't understand why he would ever be allowed out of prison after this event, because everything had to go right for him to get caught rose.
00:16:50
Speaker 2: I don't understand how he possibly thought he would get away from broad daylight at a bus stop, snatching a kid and then going to a gas station where you know, there are cameras with that kid.
00:17:06
Speaker 1: And he needs cigarettes that bad.
00:17:08
Speaker 3: He can't afford them, so he makes her go pay for them, and that's why he pulled her out.
00:17:12
Speaker 1: Think about that.
00:17:12
Speaker 3: If he hadn't stopped at that gas station, obviously they knew her location, so he was most likely going to be found, unless somehow he knew to throw her phone out the window or something like that racked.
00:17:25
Speaker 1: He didn't know.
00:17:26
Speaker 3: And the thing that she still had her phone, or at least he had her phone. He didn't think her phone was being tracked. He didn't know. Thank god for dumb criminals. Thank god he needed a cigarette that badly and he didn't have any money to pay for it. Then he needed to bring her into the gas station to pay for it. You know, thank god he was dumb, and thank god he was desperate.
00:17:47
Speaker 2: I don't know who knows what those motivations are. It's just it's good to take an opportunity and take lessons from this. It's awful what's happened to this young lady, but what a lesson to be learned. That she has taught us, that the gas station attendant has taught us, and that snapchat has taught us as parents, right, we're afraid of it. Where there's positives to these things and they, yes, can literally save lives. And this has happened, and I continue to I will publicly give Sonny Hostin from the view credit for this. I've told you this. She introduced me to life three sixty and robes. How many we hear it several times a day, my alert on my phone on the news, because we know exactly where sabine is all the time, and it's necessary and it's important and it serves us well, and it's just this is one this is one I applaud and I will support and I'm okay, And this is just one of them when technology can do this. I love it and I appreciate it, and I think every parent needs to pay attention to this thing. And you know what, even robes, if your kids don't want you to follow them, you should know all of their friends.
00:19:03
Speaker 1: Yes, exactly their friends know where they are. That's what I do.
00:19:09
Speaker 3: Yes, I know it via friends, and I guess that'll be good enough for me right now. But we always appreciate you listening to us. Thank you for this, for listening to this episode of Amy and TJ Present.
00:19:20
Speaker 1: We'll follow the story.
00:19:22
Speaker 3: We'll make sure this guy and certainly this young lady sees justice through to the very end. But we'll keep up on this story as we always like to do. We always appreciate you listening to us. I'm Amy Roebuck alongside TJ.
00:19:34
Speaker 1: Holmes. We'll talk to you soon.
Speaker 1: Hey, there are folks.
00:00:03
Speaker 2: The crime and the rescue read like a Hollywood movie script, but this is the thing I took away from it. Make sure you know where your kids are at all times, no matter if it's Life three sixty or Snapchat. And with that, welcome to this episode of Baby and TJ Presents Brope. This is a fascinating story that had a that had a really happy and almost Hollywood ending, and you got a hero as a gas station attendant. But parents need to listen to this one.
00:00:36
Speaker 3: This is a story that every parent needs to hear. And today there was an update. We are recording this on April thirtieth. The man who has been charged with the rape and kidnapping of a sixteen year old girl who was waiting for her school bus at the school bus stop, who was taken at gunpoint. This man was in court today where a judge denied him bond and said that he was the ultimate risk of the community.
00:01:07
Speaker 1: This man.
00:01:08
Speaker 3: We were talking about his forty eight year old Donald James Joseph Arthur Fields and thank god for a gas station attendant and Snapchat.
00:01:17
Speaker 2: So robes are gonna walk folks through this particular crime and as horrible as it sounds. We talk about a teenage girl kidnapped, Yes, she was sexually assaulted. Trust us, folks, it does have a happy ending here. This is a horrific story when you hear initially those details, but Robes this is this is a of all the horrible stuff going on out there, and there was a horrible individual at least involved in this one. Rod. It's such a reminder there are good people out.
00:01:45
Speaker 3: There, There are heroes, There are there are heroes out there. And the hero of this story was a you many immigrant working the register at a Detroit Sunoco gas station.
00:01:59
Speaker 1: You know, we have had a lot.
00:02:00
Speaker 3: Of stories about immigrants from different parts of the world being demonized. This is a story where I am so and we are so happy to discuss somebody who could barely speak English.
00:02:13
Speaker 1: And he says this English is tough for him.
00:02:16
Speaker 3: But you know what, he knows what word he heard or what word he saw mouthed this sixteen year old girl who was standing before him with a kidnapper behind her, mouthed the word help to him.
00:02:29
Speaker 1: And he could understand that, and he understood he.
00:02:32
Speaker 2: Only needed to know one English word ropes to say, quite possibly save this girl's life. So let's go back ropes. Was it Detroit proper, just outside outside of Detroit, Okay, in the day, this wasn't.
00:02:45
Speaker 1: The April thirteenth is when the crime happens.
00:02:48
Speaker 2: Okay, And when we say crime, you go back roll. This is a parent's horror, yes, story, this is the worst case scenario. Your child disappears.
00:02:57
Speaker 3: Yes, she is waiting and we don't have her name because she is a sexual assault victim. She's sixteen years old. But she was waiting for her school bus. She even had a friend who was there at the school bus stop waiting with her. She thankfully was able to report to police what she witnessed. But she saw this man and I'll just say his last name again because again Donald James Joseph Arthur Field's. But she saw Fields forcing her friend at gunpoint into his van. It happened very quickly and they drove away. She immediately called nine one one, but she was only able to give a little like a basic description, So that is when police were eventually called to the scene to try and figure out where she might have been. In the meantime, this horrific man, according to prosecutors and police, raped and assaulted this young girl in his van. Then he drives to a gas station.
00:03:56
Speaker 1: So he's going to help me there.
00:03:57
Speaker 2: Yes, what's the time frame? How long has he been with the girl at this point?
00:04:02
Speaker 1: I don't know that TikTok, TikTok. But it's all within an hour of Oh yeah, okay, that's the thing.
00:04:09
Speaker 2: I didn't know if this is over a large afternoon several.
00:04:11
Speaker 1: Hours very quickly.
00:04:12
Speaker 3: So now police are tracking this sixteen year old with her friend's phones through the snapchap ask. Okay, so now police are able to see where this sixteen year old girl is because her friends have her location.
00:04:30
Speaker 2: Okay, let's stop their ropes. Every parent listening right now, we all think it's weird, don't we. Your girls, My saveine like, why are you? They won't let they don't want their parents to track them, but their friends know exactly where they were, where they are all.
00:04:46
Speaker 1: The time I've had this conversation with you.
00:04:47
Speaker 3: My kids were a little bit older when I even was aware of an ability to track them, and they got to a point and they are adults now and they're like, Mom, we don't want you tracking us. I honored, but I honor that because I know that at least ten of their friends track them, so I know if anything were to happen, I know who to call.
00:05:09
Speaker 1: I know who to ask.
00:05:11
Speaker 3: Where is my daughter, and they will be able to tell me exactly at least where her phone is. So that is certainly helpful to at least know that I've got that going for me in the sense that I know where she is because her friends know where she is.
00:05:27
Speaker 1: And that is exactly what police were able to do.
00:05:30
Speaker 3: They were able to get onto snapchat on her friend's phone apps and they were able to find where they were. So now police are heading to this Sonoco gas station just outside of Detroit. At the same time, this man who is now being charged and we'll get into all of this, actually, for whatever reason, forced this team to pay for his cigarettes. Thank god he did this. So she is up at this cash register trying to pay for her attackers cigarettes, and she mouthed the word help to the gas station attendant.
00:06:07
Speaker 2: This is a movie. Shit, We've seen this scenario in movies before at at a gas station, and it happened. I give her credit, I give him credit her being smart enough to do that.
00:06:20
Speaker 1: Good God, that's scary. But she went for it.
00:06:23
Speaker 3: And so what happened was this this you many immigrant who could barely speak English, knew what help meant? He and I have to give him. I get chills thinking about this because this look he didn't know what he was dealing with. He came out from behind the protective glass, stepped in between Fields and the teen, and he said, I kicked him. I said get out, and I told the girl get behind me. And as he was doing that, Fields then ran. He chickened out. He ran to his van and guess what, this gas station attendant was chasing him.
00:06:57
Speaker 1: Look can you see the chills on me?
00:06:59
Speaker 3: Chasing him to go make sure he doesn't get away, as police were arriving to the scene because of the snapchat app.
00:07:09
Speaker 1: You can't make that up.
00:07:10
Speaker 2: I don't even know where to start with this. First start with him. First, start with her robes. She took an opportunity when she saw it. She knew she was in danger, She knew she was in trouble, and she took the opportunity. Good for her. Right. She didn't call the scene, she didn't fight him. She waited till she had help, and she got help. Give her credit for that. Give him credit I don't know this guy at all, but Robes, he sounds like a guy who is family oriented. Yeah, he sounds like a guy who's got plenty of family and aunts and uncles and nieces and nephews and kids around. It just instinct for him to do that. Robes, you got a sixteen year old kid that needs help. There is some that just there are some Robes that is. I don't know how old he is. Do you have any idea how.
00:07:58
Speaker 3: Any kids he has or owe? His name and I actually I've avoided saying it because it's really hard to pronounce, but no, but I want to try it, abdul rahaman abu Hatem. And he is being hailed a hero. And he said, I struggle with English, but I knew what help meant. He was awarded a night medal from the school where the teen attends for his quick thinking.
00:08:21
Speaker 1: And he has been lauded.
00:08:23
Speaker 3: I mean the local papers, the local television stations, they have all told him he's hero. He's been given awards, he has been given his due. But he rightfully so that is a scary thing to do. He had taken the girl at gunpoint, so he absolutely, yes, took his own life and look you imagine like if you're a gas station attendant, you know, I always think it's a little unnerving when you go to pay for gas or you go into the convenience store. You see when you're walking out of the door, the measuring stick. You see it shows you six feet five feet six feet.
00:08:59
Speaker 1: You know that that is for a suspect.
00:09:02
Speaker 3: So if a gas station attendant gets robbed or there's anything that happens, they actually it happens so often that most gas stations actually have a hype marker when you're walking out the door so that they can see and describe to police the suspects that come into their stations.
00:09:18
Speaker 1: That's how often these guys are under threat.
00:09:20
Speaker 2: They wrote. They do their job behind protective glass.
00:09:25
Speaker 1: That's a very good point. That's all you need to know.
00:09:28
Speaker 3: But it's just like I my heart warmed when I read this story about this man doing this for a complete stranger.
00:09:37
Speaker 1: But he saw a sixteen year old girl in need.
00:09:39
Speaker 2: I can't imagine how much he's seen that he chose not to get involved with. There's plenty of stuff he knows, and look, no offense, love y'all Detroit, but a Detroit gas station. Who okay, I mean it's just outside of Detroit. Eh. He's seen some stuff, is what I'm saying. I am sure he's seen some stuff. He chose this, and I am fascinated by this guy. But it's instinct. There are plenty of parents out there, dads with daughters that will hear this and applaud him. But it's almost bro it just is what you do. There's an instinct. There are just some things you do. You can't help it. If I know this guy's got a big family, I.
00:10:19
Speaker 1: Just know he does, right I wait to hear I just know he does.
00:10:24
Speaker 3: You.
00:10:24
Speaker 1: I didn't even think about that.
00:10:25
Speaker 3: But you make such a good point, and it's so interesting because look, you have Sabine now, and so many people listening to this have young daughters, maybe driving for the first time, but certainly waiting for a school bus.
00:10:38
Speaker 1: And in Sabine's case, I think she took.
00:10:40
Speaker 3: The subway for the first time with a friend, you know, starting to go out and venture out.
00:10:45
Speaker 1: And do we trust the people around her. Absolutely not.
00:10:49
Speaker 3: And you want to hope that they're equipped with street sense and they know what to do and their friends know what to do. So you have to also credit her friend for immediately calling nine to one one for pulling up her Snapchat app and saying, this is where my friend is. I can see her location right now. This is when technology is our friend. This is when technology. We talk a lot about all the negative impacts and all the things that it's doing to society, but in this moment, in these types of scary situations, technology is life saving.
00:11:21
Speaker 2: Roles. Okay, I snapchat drives me crazy. TikTok drives me crazy because I see my child sitting and scrolling and doing this whole thing. Whees. This is one There is beauty in it and I appreciate it. And this is one of those uses of snapchat and social media that doesn't I think, get enough attention. It's true and highlight it is that there is a protection there. And as a parent, as your kid maybe wants to distance himself or herself from you, with these things, they got twenty people who know exact exactly where they are all the time. It's a robes. This is I love the story. I hate Snapchat a lot of days because of Samin, but this is one where I'm like, baby, go ahead, do your thing, let your friends follow you.
00:12:14
Speaker 1: I love this. I agree.
00:12:16
Speaker 3: I even though my daughters won't let me follow them, I am grateful that they have allowed some of their friends to follow them because if worst case scenario happened in a situation like this, to know where they are is literally the difference between life and death. When we come back, we're going to tell you about this forty eight year old suspect who is a third time sexual assault offender. And to think that this all happened around seven a m. In the morning, parents, this is absolutely a wake up call. Welcome back, everybody to Amy and TJ Presents. Oftentimes, when we talk about crimes and we talk about cases, they don't have happy endings. Yes, this sixteen year old we've been talking about was sexually assaulted. That is horrific, But she is alive. She is here to tell her story, and it is because of the bravery of a gas station clerk and the technology that led police straight to where she was after she had been abducted. I mean, this abduct abduction happened seven am on a Monday on April thirteenth. Imagine how many people have their kids seven am on a Monday, sixteen years old waiting to get on her school bus just outside of Detroit. I don't know that you are necessarily concerned other kids are at the school bus stop.
00:13:54
Speaker 1: You can't imagine. But there is actually surveillance video.
00:13:56
Speaker 3: So in terms of the case that's building against this repeated they have police have surveillance video showing the moment that he approached her, put a handgun to her back, and forced her into a van. I mean that is brazen in front of another student. And again surveillance footage. They had cameras in the area showing the entire thing happening. But thank god, her cell phone was being tracked from almost the get go, actually from the beginning, because her friend pulled up Snapchat and boom.
00:14:32
Speaker 1: She knew exactly where her friend was.
00:14:35
Speaker 2: The criminals not know this. Now she has a phone on her. Every teenager has a phone on them. Every teenager is. I would argue robes being tracked, not just you. We have to call Apple and they can track down do it. No, not that you can instantly. There is every teenager. I would argue, robes right now can instantly be tracked by somebody in their surface.
00:15:00
Speaker 3: Yes, And I think it's we've talked before you're like, isn't it creepy that your friends know exactly where you are? Like, I've seen my girls pull up their apps they can see, oh, look my friend is just around the corner, or my friends in Finland, whatever. But it does seem creepy, But my god, it is useful in moments like this.
00:15:18
Speaker 1: And look, this was a bad dude. This is so rare. We always talk about random acts of violence.
00:15:23
Speaker 3: Hardly ever happen, but when they do, and if they happen to you, it's devastating. And this man had done this before. He so by the way, he is being charged with kidnapping, two counts of first degree criminal sexual conduct, felonious assault, three counts of felony firearm, and a felon in possession of a firearm. He's being charged as a third time habitual offender. As we mentioned, he has done this before. But today his bond was continued. No way this guy is getting out, and the judge made a very specific point to say, you are the ultimate risk to the community. You are not getting out of jail before your trial. So a preliminary hearing is scheduled from May thirteenth. But it does seem like there is DNA evidence in this case. There is surveillance video, There is the gas station clerk attendant, There is this sixteen year old victim, and there is the friend who was there at the bus stop when this happened. There are images of his face. I gotta say, comparing it with the person who's in court. They got their guy, and so this is going to be and look, we got to hope that the justice system prevails here where somebody who has committed a heinous sexual assault for the third time. I don't understand why he would ever be allowed out of prison after this event, because everything had to go right for him to get caught rose.
00:16:50
Speaker 2: I don't understand how he possibly thought he would get away from broad daylight at a bus stop, snatching a kid and then going to a gas station where you know, there are cameras with that kid.
00:17:06
Speaker 1: And he needs cigarettes that bad.
00:17:08
Speaker 3: He can't afford them, so he makes her go pay for them, and that's why he pulled her out.
00:17:12
Speaker 1: Think about that.
00:17:12
Speaker 3: If he hadn't stopped at that gas station, obviously they knew her location, so he was most likely going to be found, unless somehow he knew to throw her phone out the window or something like that racked.
00:17:25
Speaker 1: He didn't know.
00:17:26
Speaker 3: And the thing that she still had her phone, or at least he had her phone. He didn't think her phone was being tracked. He didn't know. Thank god for dumb criminals. Thank god he needed a cigarette that badly and he didn't have any money to pay for it. Then he needed to bring her into the gas station to pay for it. You know, thank god he was dumb, and thank god he was desperate.
00:17:47
Speaker 2: I don't know who knows what those motivations are. It's just it's good to take an opportunity and take lessons from this. It's awful what's happened to this young lady, but what a lesson to be learned. That she has taught us, that the gas station attendant has taught us, and that snapchat has taught us as parents, right, we're afraid of it. Where there's positives to these things and they, yes, can literally save lives. And this has happened, and I continue to I will publicly give Sonny Hostin from the view credit for this. I've told you this. She introduced me to life three sixty and robes. How many we hear it several times a day, my alert on my phone on the news, because we know exactly where sabine is all the time, and it's necessary and it's important and it serves us well, and it's just this is one this is one I applaud and I will support and I'm okay, And this is just one of them when technology can do this. I love it and I appreciate it, and I think every parent needs to pay attention to this thing. And you know what, even robes, if your kids don't want you to follow them, you should know all of their friends.
00:19:03
Speaker 1: Yes, exactly their friends know where they are. That's what I do.
00:19:09
Speaker 3: Yes, I know it via friends, and I guess that'll be good enough for me right now. But we always appreciate you listening to us. Thank you for this, for listening to this episode of Amy and TJ Present.
00:19:20
Speaker 1: We'll follow the story.
00:19:22
Speaker 3: We'll make sure this guy and certainly this young lady sees justice through to the very end. But we'll keep up on this story as we always like to do. We always appreciate you listening to us. I'm Amy Roebuck alongside TJ.
00:19:34
Speaker 1: Holmes. We'll talk to you soon.