Woman rescued from hostage ordeal after message on food order
A woman allegedly held hostage in a New York apartment was rescued after sending a note to a restaurant on her online food delivery order.
The popular Yonkers restaurant, Chipper Truck Cafe, received the order at 5am on Saturday (local time) for an Irish breakfast sandwich and a cheeseburger, but a message in the 'Additional Instructions' section prompted a call to the police.
"Please call the police his going to call me when u delivered come with the cones please don't make it obvious," the woman wrote, according to a Facebook post on the restaurant's page.
While somewhat incoherent, staff didn't want to "take any risk or chance" so they decided to send police to the home in replace of the meal, restaurant owner Alice Bermejo told CBS News.
"The message came in, and the girls read it and they called my husband to see what they should do," she said, adding he told them 'let's call the police'.
The Chipper Truck Cafe shared the news on its Facebook page and said the woman — police advised was 24 years old — was saved.
"This morning around 5 am a girl was saved from a 5-hour hostage situation. She ordered a delivery through Grubhub to our restaurant and added this note," restaurant staff wrote.
"Our staff responded immediately and called the police and she got saved. I’ve often heard of this happening but never thought it would happen to us."
Man arrested and charged, police say
Officers from the New York City Police Department responded to the scene at about 6.20am, and a male suspect was allegedly arrested, NBC News reported.
The suspect was reportedly arrested on charges of rape, strangulation, criminal sex act, unlawful imprisonment, menacing, assault, criminal possession of a weapon and sexual abuse.
The man — who allegedly attempted to sexually assault another woman days earlier — was apparently known to the woman, ABC 7 reported.
It was their first time meeting after chatting online for months, but their engagement allegedly turned violent and he wouldn't let her have her phone, except to order food, it's been reported.
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According to local reports, the Chipper Truck Cafe acts as a"neighbourhood watch" because it's open 24 hours a day.
Employees have been known to call Ubers or taxis for patrons who come late at night and need to get home, NBC reports.
Ms Bermejo said she was "really proud of her staff" for acting so quickly and being able to help.
"To know you could have saved someone's life, it's insane. You never think you're going to be the person to do that or that the situation is going to happen to you," she told a CBS reporter.
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