In South Carolina, a handcuffed woman ran into a truck driver’s path. He said God put him there. It was all caught on camera.
A missionary who drives a truck offers help Suspected kidnapping attempt foiled in South Carolina – which was all caught on his dashboard camera – he said on Thursday that he was not a hero but a “sacred” tool.
Anthony J. Moore, 53, was driving in Aiken County, about 20 miles (32 kilometers) from the Georgia border, on Friday when a woman ran directly into his path with her hands cuffed behind her back.
The silent video shows the drama unfolding: The woman passes in front of the truck as a man in a Cadillac parked on the side of the road swerves in front of the truck and then takes off. The woman then ran along the road and the man drove away.
“I just think it was a holy mission from God because if I hadn’t had the dash cam with me … they probably wouldn’t have captured the footage that needed to be captured,” Moore told The Associated Press in a phone interview. “This is another mission from God, a special mission from God. A life needs to be saved.”
Authorities arrested Jonathan Willard, 39, of New Ellenton, on one count each of kidnapping and impersonating a law enforcement officer. He was being held Thursday at the Aiken County Detention Center.
The woman was walking when a man in a green Cadillac “came up from behind her and told her he was with police,” according to an incident report from the Aiken County Sheriff’s Department. She said he took her cellphone and Social Security card, handcuffed her and put her in the back seat of the car.
The woman told police the man pulled over in front of a gated property and got out of his car. She said she tried to open the back door but it was locked.
She said she climbed over the seat and escaped through the open driver’s side door as the man rummaged through the trunk.
As Moore drove south of Aiken, he saw the woman running toward him.
“I opened the car window and she said, ‘Please help me. He’s trying to kidnap me,'” Moore said.
When the woman swerved, the man chasing her pulled up next to him and displayed “what looked like a badge,” Moore said.
“He said, ‘I was with law enforcement and she jumped out of my car,'” Moore recalled. The man then drove away in the Cadillac.
Bystanders called 911 and helped remove the woman’s handcuffs and gave her water. Moore said she told him she had graduated the day before and that the man had taken her diploma.
She asked Moore if he would accompany her back to where she escaped to see if the man might have thrown away her belongings. He said they found nothing.
The Aiken County Attorney’s Office said Willard has not been assigned a defense attorney and no court date has been scheduled. The Associated Press called the prison to speak with Willard, but the request was denied.
Moore is the pastor of Amazing Grace Ministries in Denmark, South Carolina. Moore was also a 27-year Army veteran, said his wife, Betty, the church’s associate pastor.
“When I learned he was arrested the next day, I was relieved because he didn’t get away with much,” he said, “and could go somewhere else and try again.”
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