A restaurant worker and owner are being hailed as heroes after they called the police when they received a chilling note with a food order from a woman who was allegedly kidnapped and sexually assaulted.
A worker at the Chipper Truck Cafe in the city of Yonkers, New York, received the message on a Grubhub order at about 5 a.m. on Sunday.
The message read: “Please call the police his going to call me when u delivered come with the cones please don’t make it obvious.”
Unsure of what to do, the worked called one of the restaurant’s owners.
“She was basically saying to bring the police with the delivery,” said Alice Bermejo to WABC-TV.
She said that her husband Valentin Bermejo told the worker to keep track of the address for the order, call the police and not take any chances.
The address was only three miles away from the restaurant.
Police said that they found a 24-year-old woman being held against her will by a 32-year-old man they later identified as Kemoy Royal. The woman told police she had met Royal for the first time after interacting with him online and he got violent with her.
She said that she been held captive, raped, and abused by the man. Although he allegedly took her phone, she said that he had let her use it to order food for both of them.
Royal was charged with a number of crimes including rape, unlawful imprisonment, strangulation, criminal sex act, and sexual abuse.
The NYPD said that the man had been on their radar because a neighbor of his had accused him of sexually assaulting her as well. They were trying to find him when he allegedly kidnapped the second woman.
The Chipper Truck Cafe received praise from commenters online, and Grubhub rewarded the small business with $5,000 in a reward for their efforts to save the woman.
“Right now my head is in a fog so I don’t know, but we could definitely use it, with everything that happened during the pandemic, it will definitely go to good use,” said Alice.
Here’s a local news report about the harrowing incident:
GrubHub rewards cafe for calling police after plea for help came with food order
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