A Tennessee boy reportedly abducted late Monday afternoon used lessons his mother taught him to escape a man who snatched him while he was checking the mail.
CBS 12 reports that 10-year-old Elijah was at his grandparents’ house in East Brainerd, Tennessee, when someone in an SUV pulled up, grabbed the boy, and put him in the trunk of the vehicle. The driver is described at this time only as a white male.
The incident happened at the gated Windrose Circle subdivision, which lies close to an elementary school.
Elijah told police that when the driver stopped at a McDonald’s/BP station, he quickly pulled the lever to the trunk and tried to get out. Elijah’s mother, Keniya Love, said she had previously taught her son how to get out of a trunk when he was younger.
“That lever – that yellow thing that dangles inside the trunk – the reason why there’s a picture of a trunk and three dots and then a person who looks like they’re running, that’s just in case somebody takes you. You pull it, take off running and don’t even look back,” Love said.
The first time he attempted to escape, the abductor pulled Elijah back into the trunk and shut it, Love said. Elijah told his mother that he bit the assailant before the man threw him back in the trunk. Elijah said he tried again and the trunk opened. He managed to run to some bushes and hide.
Elijah’s grandfather picked the boy up miles away from his home, Love said, around 30 minutes after he disappeared.
“He used his cell phone and its GPS,” Love said, ABC 7 reports.
Elijah reportedly described the SUV as black with dark windows. The boy said the truck had a Georgia license plate with a “Trump 2020” sticker on the rear bumper.
According to the Hamilton County Sheriff’s Office, the incident is currently under investigation. Anyone with information should contact HCSO at 423-622-0022.
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[Feature Photo: Pixabay]
