California McDonald's employees save woman from abusive partner after she mouths 'help me' at drive-thru window
LODI, CALIFORNIA: Employees at a California fast food restaurant are being hailed as heroes after their quick thinking ensured that a woman was able to escape unscathed from a potentially abusive partner this holiday season.
The incident unfolded at a McDonald's in the city of Lodi on Christmas Eve shortly after 2 pm when the victim went into the restaurant and told an employee at a counter to call 911, according to a press release from the San Joaquin County Sheriff's Office.
She gave the employee the license plate of the vehicle she was traveling in and asked them to hide her until the authorities reached the scene.
However, after she used the restroom and attempted to place an order at the counter to stall for time, the suspect, Eduardo Valenzuela, intervened and ordered her to use the drive-thru instead.
While at the drive-thru, the victim managed to mouth 'help me' to an employee, and by this time, deputies had reached the restaurant to investigate the reports they had received.
Employees rushed them outside the door and told them the woman who needed help was in the drive-thru line. The deputies ordered the car to pull over and found that the victim was driving, with Valenzuela in the passenger seat next to her.
Regina Camera, a spokeswoman for McDonald's, said workers had jumped into action and immediately called 911.
"We are a safe place, so we are trained on how to handle crisis situations like that," she told Fox40. "Our restaurant manager had our employees actually hold up the drive-thru line so that we were then able to stop that car from moving forward."
During their investigation, deputies comforted the woman, who was visibly shaken and discovered that Valenzuela had been violent with her in the past. She told them that, on the day, he had ordered her to drive him to visit his family and threatened her with a firearm.
A search of the vehicle yielded a firearm that had been hidden in the trunk and was found to have been stolen from out of state.
Valenzuela was booked in the San Joaquin County Jail on charges of making criminal threats, possessing stolen property, and being a felon (prohibited person) in possession of a firearm.