Kidnapping Victim Rescued After Leaving Secret Note at KFC Restaurant in Tennessee

A person walks past a KFC outlet in Melbourne, Australia, on July 15, 2020. William West/AFP via Getty Images

An employee working at a KFC restaurant in Tennessee is garnering praise for playing a critical role in the rescue of a woman who was being held against her will.

The alleged kidnapper, 23-year-old Diego Glay, brought the woman to the KFC location in the 6200 block of Winchester Road in Memphis on May 15, where the woman left a note begging for help. The note gave descriptions of both individuals. An employee saw the note and called the Memphis Police Department (MPD), and police officers responded to the call just after 5 p.m., according to Fox13.

Officers soon made contact with the two people. Police said Glay refused to obey commands given by the officers and ran away. However, he was arrested after a short foot chase.

The woman told police she and Glay were in a relationship, but that he had punched her in the face and been physically abusive. When she tried to leave, the woman said Glay took away her phone and made sure she never left his sight for days at a time, and he had a gun, she said.

The duo were staying in cheap hotels in the region, police said. Glay, who is being held on a $35,000 bond, will appear in court on June 1.

A similar rescue in Tennessee occurred in April when a woman used hand signals made popular on TikTok to escape from a kidnapping situation.

The woman ran into a convenience store and performed the signal with her hand, which is reportedly used when a person is caught in a domestic violence situation and needs to discreetly alert the need for help, News 2 reported. She also made eye contact with another customer at the store, Eric Streeval, and mouthed the word “help.”

Streeval, a member of a motorcycle club that assists women in domestic violence situations, identified the hand signal. He took a photo of the license plate of the truck the woman was traveling in and asked the store cashier to dial 911.

When police arrived at the scene, they followed the pickup truck as it was leaving the parking lot and chased it for about 10 to 15 minutes, after which the truck crashed into a creek. The driver was arrested and the woman rescued.

“If you see something, say something. Domestic violence is a bad thing here in Tennessee,” Streeval told News 2. “The victims, a lot of times they’re too afraid to speak out. And I credit the young lady in this situation with having the world’s most courage of actually speaking out because who knows what would have happened.”