Hero postal worker saves young girl from sex trafficking – what happens next is beautiful
Human trafficking is a huge problem right now, and it’s a problem going on across the world. While what’s happening to these young people is awful, it may seem easier to just look away if you see something or someone that looks suspicious.
The people who don’t look the other way, who take a step to make a difference, can and do have a powerful impact and save multiple lives.
A recent example is a Californian teen who was rescued by a postal carrier. Crystal Allen is just 16 years old and says she was kidnapped and held captive in a world of sex trafficking in Sacramento. Everything changed when postal carrier Ivan Crisostomo heard her crying while on his mail route last month. “I hear this crying, this desperate crying,” he said. “I saw her hiding behind this kind of bush, kind of tree.”
Crisostomo found Allen hiding behind a tree crying, and she told him she feared people would be “coming to get” her, she had apparently escaped from her captors by jumping out of a car prior to Crisostomo finding her. “Don’t worry, nobody’s going to take you, I’m here for you,” Crisostomo told the teenager. Allen was allegedly “drugged, tortured and abused” for three months before she escaped.
“I just cried all the time and prayed that I’d get to see my mom again,” Allen said.
It is not currently clear who Allen’s alleged captors are or how she became involved with them.
With Crisostomo’s help, the girl was able to call her family, and then he stayed with her until police officers arrived.Allen recently was able to see Crisostomo again, and was excited to be able to thank him in person for having saved her.
“Ivan is a hero for saving me,” she said. “Even if he doesn’t think it!”
“What Ivan did was wonderful, he stepped up where a lot of people would have just continued driving down the road and he made a huge positive impact in this young girl’s life,” said David Cuneo of the city’s sheriff’s department.
“I don’t see myself as a hero,” Mr Crisostomo said. “I see myself as a person who really wants to help.”
Let this be a lesson for your own life. If you see someone suffering or in danger, don’t keep walking. Don’t assume it’s none of your business, or someone else will help them. Take that moment to stop, turn around, and see what you can do to help. It may just save someone’s life.