A Teen Was Walking Her Dog. Then: 'Can Anybody Help Me?'

A teen in New Jersey stumbled onto something quite unexpected Thursday morning—and her quick thinking helped rescue a man who'd been abducted, cops say. USA Today reports that 17-year-old Kayla Rose was walking her dog in Irvington when she strolled past a parked car and heard scratching and kicking coming from inside the trunk. "Then I said, 'Hello,'" she tells WABC, noting she then heard a man's voice respond, "Hello, can anybody help me?" Per Inside Edition, Kayla ran to the home of a neighbor, who called 911, and then she rushed home to tell her mom what had happened. Before authorities got there, locals tried to help bust the man out of the car, but to no avail.

When the cops finally arrived, they opened the trunk; bystanders say the man seemed to be OK, though he was tied up and said he'd been beaten. Per a release from the Union County prosecutor's office, the Hillside man had been carjacked the previous night, kidnapped, and robbed at gunpoint, with two suspects driving him to local banks to make him withdraw money. One of the suspects, JaVohn Berrouet, 24, has been arrested and charged with carjacking, kidnapping, robbery, and weapons offenses. There's a $10,000 reward for info leading to the arrest and indictment of the second suspect. The victim was said to have suffered non-life-threatening injuries. (More kidnapping stories.)