A woman allegedly being held hostage in New York City came up with an ingenious way to alert the police to her whereabouts.
As reported by ABC7, the 24-year-old woman says she was being held captive and raped at a home in the Bronx, before reaching out for help on a food delivery app.
Taking to Grubhub, the young woman placed an order for a breakfast sandwich and a burger at around 5:00AM on Sunday morning. Staff at the Chipper Truck Café on McLean Avenue in Yonkers initially thought nothing of the standard order, until they saw a chilling note in the additional delivery instructions.
Speaking to ABC7, owner Alice Bermejo revealed that the note appeared hastily written, but clearly called for the food order to be delivered by the police. It read:
"please call the police his going to call me when u delivered come with the cones please don' t make it obvious"
"She was basically saying to bring the police with the delivery," said Bermejo.
More on this story below:After workers spotted the alarming note they contacted Bermejo's husband, who told them to call the police. She says it was better to not take any risks that the note was a hoax. "Better be safe than sorry," she said.
The delivery address was listed as a house in the Eastchester section of the Bronx. Authorities say that when officers arrived, they found 32-year-old suspect Kemoy Royal holding the young woman hostage and sexually assaulting her.
Court documents show that when the suspect opened the door, he was expecting it to be a delivery driver - not the police.
Royal has reportedly met the alleged victim months prior on a dating app. The relationship soon turned violent and he became controlling over the woman, not letting her use her cell phone unless it was to order food.
Alice Bermejo's daughter has since reflected on the fact that the young woman's only hope of help was submitting a food order on an app for a 24-hour restaurant that was three and a half miles away.
"Just knowing that like, we were there, and that being open 24 hours allowed her to have a way to get help," Alice's daughter, Alicia, said.
Royal has now been charged with a number of counts, including rape, unlawful imprisonment, strangulation, criminal sex act and sexual abuse. He has also been charged with attempting to sexually assault a 26-year-old woman just days earlier on June 14.
Fortunately, that woman was also able to evade him.
Alicia Bermejo has also revealed that a friend of the 24-year-old woman has called the restaurant to thank the staff for their help.
"They called to thank us and just to be like, 'thank you so much for helping my friend and just, you know making sure that she was fine,'" she said. "We really had no idea of the gravity of the situation until after everything had happened."
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