A police drone looking into a Kissimmee home spotted children hiding in a room and one of them holding a handwritten note against the window. The words “Help us” were visible through the glass.
The children got out while the man they accused of keeping them inside was distracted by officers outside, Kissimmee police said. Andre Janard Smithson, 33, eventually surrendered peacefully.
The Oct. 26 call to 911 came from family members after one of the children sent his grandmother a text that alarmed them, The Palm Beach Post reported. Police sent a SWAT team to the home, but nobody answered when the team knocked.
Officers reached the children by phone. According to the Post, the children told them they were afraid of Smithson and that he was refusing to let them leave.
Kissimmee police released a still image from the drone footage on Nov. 10.
Police arrested Smithson on a false imprisonment charge and an outstanding warrant. The department’s statement gave no details about the warrant, and Smithson’s relationship to the children was unclear.
Court records show he previously faced assault and battery charges in Alachua County in 2013 in a case involving a stranger. The person ultimately decided against pressing charges.
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In a separate Texas case, a woman told officers in Round Rock that her partner had spent more than 24 hours holding her against her will. She alleged that he drove her around Central Texas and repeatedly threatened to kill her.
Officers got involved after the woman asked a stranger for help from inside a pickup truck at a Refuel gas station. According to police, the caller described the woman as visibly distressed and said she had asked her to photograph the truck and call for help.
Police put the response shortly before 7 p.m. on Saturday, Oct. 24, at 705 E. Palm Valley Boulevard. The woman identified her partner to investigators as Zachary Allen Johs-Gori, 29, of Pflugerville.
In video from the encounter, the caller recalled that the woman opened the truck door when she returned. “She was scared to death,” the caller said.
The woman asked the caller for help, and the stranger agreed immediately. The Round Rock Police Department publicly thanked her for taking the request seriously and calling officers.
Michael Matranga, a former Secret Service agent who runs a security consulting firm, said a person stepping in may have little idea how aggressive the suspected captor is or what violence may already have occurred. He also spoke about why people in such situations may hesitate to involve friends or relatives, and how some return to their partners after seeking advice.
Johs-Gori was booked into the Williamson County Jail on a charge of aggravated kidnapping, a first-degree felony. Police said he remained in custody on a $250,000 bond.
In South Carolina, a truck driver’s dashcam recorded a woman running in front of his rig with her hands cuffed behind her back.
Anthony J. Moore, 53, a preacher who also drives a truck, was on his route south of Aiken on a Friday in June when he saw her emerge from the woods.
The video has no sound. It shows the woman passing in front of the truck and a Cadillac swerving in front of the rig before driving away as she continued down the road on foot.
Authorities arrested Jonathan Willard, 39, of New Ellenton, on one count each of kidnapping and impersonation of a law enforcement officer. He was being held Thursday at the Aiken County Detention Center.
The woman told the Aiken County Sheriff’s Department she had been out walking when a man in a green Cadillac approached her from behind and claimed to be with the police. She said he took her phone and Social Security card, put her in handcuffs and placed her in the back seat.
The woman told investigators that the man stopped near a gated property and got out. She tried the rear doors, but they were locked.
While the man went through the trunk, she climbed over the seat and out the open door on the driver’s side, according to her account. The truck encounter took place about 20 miles from the Georgia border.
Moore lowered his window as the woman came toward him, and she told him the man was trying to kidnap her. The driver of the Cadillac pulled alongside the truck and showed what looked like a badge, the truck driver recalled.
The man claimed he was with law enforcement and said the woman had jumped out of his car. He then drove away.
Moore told The Associated Press he regarded the encounter as “a divine assignment from God” and believed that without his dashcam there might have been no recording of what happened. Bystanders called 911, removed the woman’s handcuffs and gave her water.
The woman told Moore she had graduated the day before and that the man had taken her diploma as well. She asked him to go back with her to where she had escaped to see whether her belongings had been discarded. Moore said they found nothing.
