It's not every day an ordinary teen becomes a hero after being in the right place at the right time. But that's exactly what happened to Kayla Rose, a 17-year-old from Irvington, New Jersey, who was out walking her dog last week when she came upon a scene that was straight out of a crime drama.
Rose says she was passing by a parked car when she suddenly heard a voice coming from inside the trunk.
"I heard knocking and scratching on the trunk of the car, and I just backed up because I was scared," Rose told WABC. "And then I heard it again. And then I said, 'Hello.' And he was like, 'Hello, can anybody help me?'"
Gulp. That alone would have been enough to make me jump right out of my skin and run my butt right home, but luckily, Kayla has far more chill than I could ever hope to have.
Kayla did run home -- but once there, she didn't bury her head under a blanket. She asked for help and alerted neighbors who called 911.
"I got a crowbar and tried to pop the trunk, but it just bent the metal," Rose's neighbor, Joe Bollaro, told WABC. "The cops were coming, so I didn't want to. I said, 'They're coming. Hold on.' I said, 'Can you breathe?' He said, 'Yeah.'"
Police arrived just moments later and were able to pop the trunk open and free the trapped man, who was tied up inside.
Luckily, his injuries were reportedly non-life threatening, and he was quickly brought by ambulance to the hospital. But surely the emotional trauma of the attack will be with him for some time.
"He was shaken up, he was beat up," Rose's mother, Marie Banks, told WABC. "I guess he was very happy, thankful for my daughter that she found him."
(Um yeah — can somebody give this girl an award?!)
Although details are still scarce, what investigators have learned so far sounds like it belongs in the plot of a Jason Bourne movie.
The man had reportedly been carjacked, kidnapped, and robbed the night before Kayla found him trapped inside the trunk. He had been in Hillside, New Jersey, at the time of the attack, which is some three miles south of where his car wound up in Irvington.
But oh wait, 'cause there's more …
The victim, who police have not identified, was driven around to local banks by two gun-wielding suspects and forced to withdraw money from each.
The terrifying ordeal ended when the suspects drove the victim's car to Irvington, locked him inside the trunk of the car, and took off.
He then waited for hours to be found and was no doubt eternally grateful Kayla heard his cries.
Police have taken one suspect into custody so far, but a second suspect is still at large.
JaVohn Berrouet, 24, was arrested Friday and charged with carjacking, kidnapping, robbery, and weapons offenses. Police were able to quickly narrow in on him as a suspect and found a ski mask as well as a .45-caliber handgun when searching his home.
Though it's still unclear if the victim knew his abductors, NBC reports that some 12 hours passed between the time Berrouet and his accomplice left the man in the trunk and when he was found by Rose. Considering the temperatures dipped as low as 10 degrees that night, those 12 hours spent confined in the trunk and freezing were no doubt terrifying.
As for Kayla? The whole event has certainly left her spooked.
As she later told her mother, "It's like I was just in a horror movie."
Still, she's grateful she was able to help.
"As I told my daughter, she saved a life this morning because there's no telling how long this person [would have been] locked in this trunk in this frigid weather," Banks told NBC.
