An alleged kidnapping victim was rescued this week after calling for help through a food delivery app.
According to ABC 7, the incident took place at around 5 a.m. Sunday, when the Yonkers-based Chipper Truck Café received a Grubhub order for a breakfast sandwich and a burger. But it didn’t take long for employees to notice an alarming message under the “additional instructions” section.
“Please call the police,” the note read, “his going to call me when u delivered come with the cones please don’t make it obvious.”
Workers immediately called the cafe’s owners and asked how they should handle the situation.
“They’d seen the note on the order, and they called my husband, said ‘What should we do?’” said Alice Bermejo, who co-owns Chipper Truck cafe with her husband. “… He was like, ‘Call the police, can’t take any risks, better be safe than sorry.’”
The order was to be delivered in the Eastchester neighborhood of the Bronx. Police arrived at the residence shortly after, and found a 24-year-old woman who claimed a man had raped her and was holding her against her will. Authorities then arrested the suspect, identified as 32-year-old Kemoy Royal, at the home. He has since been hit with multiple charges, including unlawful imprisonment, strangulation, rape, as well as criminal sex act and sexual abuse.
Bermejo said they have yet to meet the woman, but received a phone call from one of her friends.
“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,’” Bermejo told the network. “We really had no idea of the gravity of the situation until after everything had happened [...] I hope someday we get to meet her.”
On the same day of his arrest, Royal was charged with attempting to rape a second woman at his home on June 15. That victim managed to escape, but it remains unclear why Royal wasn’t arrested for that incident until Sunday.
