A girl kidnapped in Texas on July 6 was rescued three days later in Long Beach after waving a “help me” sign while inside her captor’s vehicle.
Long Beach police attributed the rescue to the quick thinking of a Good Samaritan and the girl, who tried to get help any way they could.
Police said the 13-year-old victim scribbled the words “Help Me” in red letters on a crumbled piece of paper and held the sign while inside a car in the parking lot of a laundromat. This sign caught the attention of the right person.
“She (the Good Samaritan) is my client,” Touch Vong told Easy Wash Laundromat. “She always comes here to wash up, and she came over and told me the girl in the car needed help.”
Vong said his client went back outside and called 911.
Police say the man who kidnapped the girl was in the laundromat doing laundry. Vong said he brought the girl inside at some point that morning.
Vong said she had a bad feeling when she saw the man with the girl.
“He looked at me,” Vong said of the man she described as creepy, and immediately thought something was wrong.
After the customer called the police, officers arrested him, identifying him as 61-year-old Steven Robert Sablan of Cleburne, Texas.
According to a federal indictment, the girl was driving around San Antonio on July 6 when she was approached by a man in a silver Nissan.
The driver of the vehicle, later identified as Sablan, raised a black handgun and told her that if she didn’t get in the car with him, he was going to hurt her.
The indictment says Sablan drove the 13-year-old girl from San Antonio to Long Beach, sexually assaulting her multiple times along the way.
When the Good Samaritan called 911, responding officers found a black BB gun and handcuffs in the car.
“I’m shocked, but happy because the police rescued her,” Vong said.
Sablan was charged with kidnapping and transporting a minor with intent to engage in criminal sexual activity. His arraignment is set for Monday, July 31.