Her Afternoon Shift at the Gas Station Turned Heroic

At 3pm on Wednesday, a cashier at a Waterford, Calif., gas station got an unusual request: "Lock the door, they will kill us." Savannah Pritchett tells KCRA that while working at Triple R Gas Mart a woman walked in, told her she had been kidnapped in Fresno, had been sexually assaulted, and was being taken to San Francisco. Her kidnappers were armed, she had no phone, and she needed help—the best she had been able to do was convince them to stop so she could use the bathroom. What Pritchett did next has police calling her a "true hero," reports ABC News.

Pritchett says she gave the woman a phone and led her to the bathroom in the store's rear, enabling the woman to call police. Pritchett tells CBS Sacramento some of the alleged kidnappers came in and asked after the woman; Pritchett told them she was dealing with her menstrual cycle. Sheriff's deputies arrived shortly thereafter and arrested Anthony Sandoval, 18. The Stanislaus County Sheriff's Department said in a Facebook post that three others have been arrested in the case. KCRA reports two guns were recovered on the scene. "Her being able to get this victim into a secured restroom with a phone and being able to contact law enforcement very well may have saved her life," says Sgt. Tom Letras. (More Good Samaritan stories.)