The world can be a scary place, so it’s important that we help keep an eye out for each other. Especially if you have kids, you’d hope that a stranger would step up if you weren’t there to protect them. Just like in the story below.
An airport ticket agent named Denice Miracle became a hero after saving a couple of teenage girls from a suspected human trafficking situation.
The incident occurred one day while Denice was working at the Sacramento International Airport in California.
During Denice’s shift, she was approached by two teen girls with first-class tickets to New York.
As she interacted with them, however, she realized they didn’t have any I.D. and had only packed small bags.
When she asked the two girls questions, they looked at each other in confusion, not knowing what to say.
“They were young and by themselves. It’s unusual to get teens traveling that far by themselves,” Denice told Today.
“One of the girls was texting someone on the phone to get answers. They had small bags, and I initially thought they were running away from home.”
Denice immediately got a gut feeling that something was wrong. In addition to the girls’ odd behavior, their tickets were expensive and paid for by a credit card that had a different name. The airport systems had flagged the number as a potential credit card fraud.
Denise told the teens, 15 and 17, that something was wrong with their tickets. She then asked them to sit tight while she secretly phoned the police.
“They kept looking at each other in a way that seemed fearful and anxious. I had a gut feeling that something just wasn’t right.”
When authorities arrived, the teens said their tickets had been purchased by a man named “Drey” on Instagram. He had invited them for the weekend and was going to pay them $2,000 for modeling work.
That’s when cops told them they had almost been victims of a human trafficking ring.
The girls had told their parents they would be staying at each other’s homes for the weekend. They refused to believe they had been duped until the officer confirmed a harrowing fact:
“You have a one-way ticket.”
“We don’t believe his real name was Drey,” Scott Swisher, Sacramento County Sherrif’s Sergeant, told Today. The police also believe the man was using a Google phone number, so it couldn’t be tracked down. From what can be ascertained, his identity remains a mystery.
“We attempted to look him up on Instagram just a few minutes after our contact with him. He had already erased all his profiles on social media.”
Thanks to Denice’s quick thinking, the girls evaded what could have been a dark (and lethal) scenario.
“I’m proud of Denice and how she put her training into action to save these children,” Aleka Turner, American Airlines general manager, wrote in a statement.
“She is a testament to the critical role our frontline team members play each and every day in the operation and the lives of each person they come in contact with.”
Since saving the teens, Denice is being praised for her quick-thinking and intuition. Her story has been viewed thousands of times and comments on the video read:
“THANK YOU MS. MIRACLE FOR SAVING THOSE GIRLS’ LIVES”
“Miracle by name and by nature :) Thank goodness for her.”
“We need more woman in these positions- intuition is our forte.”
While it’s up to us to teach our children about safety – it’s a blessing there are people like Denice in this world, who will stand up when a situation doesn’t seem right.
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