Police in Arizona were able to successfully rescue a kidnapped woman after she handed a desperate plea for help in the form of a note to a customer at a gas station.
In a press release, the Yavapai County Sheriff’s Office said that on Tuesday at 5 p.m., the unnamed woman passed a note to a customer at a Chevron gas station in Seligman, which included her name and a plea for someone to call 911, saying she had been kidnapped.
The note included a description of the van she was in, a phone number and that she was being taken to Kingman and Las Vegas.
“Help. Call 911. Blue Honda van. Going towards Kingman Las Vegas,” the note read.
The van was located at Mile Post 116 on I-40 and with the help of the Arizona Department of Public Safety, 41-year-old Jacob Wilhoit was taken into custody.
Emergency dispatchers with the county determined that the woman had been reported missing by her mother earlier in the afternoon, and Wilhoit had been named as a person of interest.
Detectives discovered that he had abducted the woman on Monday morning from a car dealership in the Phoenix area while wearing a wig and pretending to be an Uber driver.
Wilhoit allegedly restrained the woman while they were driving to Las Vegas. They spent Monday night at a Lake Mead park, officials said, adding that “multiple firearms” were found in the vehicle.
Wilhoit was booked on charges of harassment, threatening and intimidating, aggravated assault, unlawful imprisonment, kidnapping and several other assault charges.
“The victim’s extraordinary action in passing the note, the customer’s willingness to assist, and the quick actions of YCSO and DPS saved the victim from her kidnapper and allowed her to return home with her family,” the sheriff’s office said in the statement.
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