Dramatic surveillance video from a convenience store in Birmingham, Alabama, shows a woman escape her kidnapper by tumbling from the trunk of her moving car as it drives through the parking lot.
Despite a hard landing, the woman quickly scrambles to her feet and runs to safety inside the store, where her captor had attempted to use the ATM just minutes before.
Police say the 25-year-old woman was abducted at gunpoint and held for hours on Tuesday. The kidnapper forced her into her own car ― and later, the trunk ― while he visited ATM locations around town, using her debit card to withdraw money.
Convenience store owner Yosef Alsabah told AL.com the suspect grew frustrated when the ATM wouldn’t spit out more money, then left after Alsabah suggested he try again later.
As the man drove out of the lot, Alsabah said he saw the trunk pop open on the black Nissan Altima and the woman run toward him.
“I got her inside and locked the door, then called the police,” Alsabah said.
The woman was taken to a nearby hospital with minor injuries.
WIAT reports police found the woman’s car the next morning. The suspect got away, but Birmingham police Chief A.C. Roper said police are “working really hard to get this guy identified.”
Earlier this week, a woman in Seattle also made national headlines after she fought off an attacker who had hidden in a public restroom.
“I fought for my life screaming (”Not today, m**f**er!”), clawing his face, punching back, and desperately trying to escape his grip ― never giving up,” the woman recounted in a harrowing Instagram post. “I was able to lock him in the bathroom until police arrived.”