These Women Saved Someone From Sexual Assault Just By Speaking Up
We all know that half the fun of hitting a trendy restaurant is the people watching, but sometimes what you see can turn serious in an instant. Sonia Ulrich and her two friends, Marla and Monica, were just out for a evening of mid-week Happy Hour at a popular Santa Monica, California spot, FIG, when they saw something they couldn’t ignore: a man slipping a drug into a woman’s cocktail.
What went down next got pretty insane, but thankfully Sonia shared their experience on Facebook as a cautionary tale — and luckily one with a happy ending.
According to Sonia’s post, the women noticed a man slipping something into his date’s glass, and then Sonia followed her into the bathroom to warn her. What they had assumed must be a creep out on a first date with an unsuspecting victim turned out to be even worse — the women told them the guy was one of her best friends, and even that she’d left her car at his apartment and come to the restaurant with him.
The trio of superheroes was obviously not going to just let this go by warning the intended victim. Justice was their aim, and so they quickly got the restaurant staff involved. In one of the saddest parts of the story, the woman had to return to her dinner with the “best friend” she now knew was trying to drug her, while Sonia and her friends tried to see if they could get police to intervene without letting the jerk know anything was wrong.
Luckily, because they acted so quickly and didn’t hesitate to help another woman in distress, the restaurant security team reviewed the tape and saw the man slip something in his date’s drink. Santa Monica police arrived, arrested him, and one sexual assault in Los Angeles was stopped that night.
But the evening wasn’t quite over for the three victorious heroines. Word gets around in a small restaurant, and as they waited to give statements to the police, the women were surprised when person after person at FIG came over to thank them and share their own stories of being roofied or having it happen to their friends. All in all, Sonia said they got “at least 10 stories” of peoples’ experience with drugged assaults.
Danger is always out there, it’s not a threat that can ever be eliminated entirely. But sticking together and watching out for each other is one of the most effective ways people can fight the crimes that happen when perpetrators think no one is looking and no one will help. The would-be victim had friends in the room she had never met and may never see again, something we all should wish for. In the end, Sonia said it best:
And thank you in advance to everyone who sees this and shares this and reminds each other that yes, you SHOULD say something. Even if it’s awkward or weird or just uncertain if anything can be done.
Know that YOU did something. And that it helped.
The post These women are proof that you can save someone from sexual assault just by speaking up appeared first on HelloGiggles.
