Sometimes the right people are in the right place at the right time. Like the teen who saved a little girl from a child predator at Target or the boy who chased down a kidnapper to save a neighbor’s child.
For Keith Avila, December 26th started out like any other. After finishing up his daytime job, he decided to pick up some extra cash by driving for Uber. He thought it would be like any other day, but what happened instead was something he never expected.
In his viral Facebook video, he describes picking up two women and a young girl in Sacramento, California and driving them to a nearby Holiday Inn. While they were in his car, he overhears the older women tell the 16-year-old girl how they are going to deliver her to a “John” and get money for her services to him.
Avila knew there was no way he was going to let that happen. As soon as he dropped them off at the hotel he quickly called the police.
“The worst thing I thought would happen when driving Uber is that I would be getting drunk passengers and I would have to handle them. All my life, I thought about people throwing up in the car as the worst scenario.”
Thanks to Avila’s quick thinking, police arrived almost immediately on the scene. They were able to rescue the young teen, who turned out to be a runaway, from being trapped inside a child trafficking ring and put her into an “alternative housing situation.”
Police detained the two women responsible, Destiny Pettway, 25, and Maria Westley, 31, and charged them with pimping and pandering a minor. They also arrested Disney Vang, 20, on suspicions of sexual activity with a minor, but he has since been released.
The Uber Safety Team even reached out to Avila over the phone to thank him for his quick thinking.
“Maintaining the platform as a safe and comfortable place for both riders and driver partners is very important to us, and any incident that disrupts that experience for either party is one we take very seriously. We appreciate your professionalism in a difficult situation.”
We are so glad Avila there to save the day! See his account of the event in the video below.
Share his heroic actions today!
