Cops: Kidnapped Woman Is Helped by Bank Employees

She asked for a 'help loan,' and police were soon on the scene in Pennsylvania
By John Johnson,  Newser Staff
Posted May 29, 2022 9:26 AM CDT
Cops: Kidnapped Woman Is Helped by Bank Employees
   (Getty/BrianAJackson)

Police in Carbondale, Pennsylvania, say a woman being held against her will managed to signal to bank employees that she needed help—and those employees picked right up on the plea. As WNEP reports, police say Wilson Medina-Garcia began holding the woman captive in her home on Tuesday, threatening to kill her and her children if she did not cooperate. On Wednesday, he took her to a PNC bank and instructed her to take out $5,000, say police, per Fox56. The woman asked for a "help loan," and bank employees set off a silent alarm usually used during holdups.

Police arrived on the scene and arrested Medina-Garcia, 36, who has been charged with kidnapping, unlawful restraint, and terroristic threats. ABC13 reports that before the bank, the woman tried to signal for help at a different business, but employees there didn't pick up on it. At the woman's home, police say they found a lock on her bedroom door, her cellphone that Medina-Garcia allegedly broke, and a bucket she had to use to go to the bathroom. (In a previous case, a teenager used a hand signal to get help.)

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