A woman who was allegedly being abused and kept captive in her home by her husband was rescued this week when an observant UPS driver noticed the plea for help she’d scrawled on a package waiting to be picked up.
Police in Franklin County, MO, said in court documents that the woman was prevented from leaving the couple’s home or using the phone over a 15-hour period starting Monday night, KMOV.com reports. Her husband allegedly beat her, put a gun to her head, and threatened to kill her. The couple’s three-year-old was locked in his room with no food or water during the ordeal, police said.
On Tuesday morning, a UPS driver showed up to pick up a package, and as he accepted it from the woman, she wrote “contact 911” on it. The driver left and called authorities, and sheriff’s deputies arrived on the scene and arrested the husband. He’s been charged with domestic assault, sodomy, felonious restraint, unlawful use of a weapon and endangering the welfare of a child.
“He made a huge difference,” a police sergeant told KMOV of the UPS driver.
He joins quite the list of delivery drivers and other customer-facing workers who have gone above and beyond to help customers in trouble:
• Earlier this year, Domino’s workers came to the rescue of a customer after noticing he hadn’t ordered his usual pizza.
• In 2015, a woman who was being held hostage by her boyfriend was saved after she used an online Pizza Hut order to ask for help.
• An observant telemarketer helped save a woman 900 miles away from a violent attack last year after a phone call to the woman was picked up, but no one answered.
• Back in 2012, a Comcast technician saved a sleeping customer from a fire.
• Just one week apart in 2011, a Papa John’s delivery guy rescued a customer trapped under a tree branch, and a Domino’s delivery driver saved the life of a regular customer who had suddenly stopped calling.
by Mary Beth Quirk via Consumerist