The quick-thinking employees of Chipper Truck Cafe contacted police after seeing note on Grubhub order asking for help.
A New York restaurant helped save a woman being held hostage who wrote "Please call police" on a Grubhub order, its owner said.
The Chipper Truck Cafe, a Yonkers eatery open 24 hours a day, received the desperate plea Sunday at about 5:00 a.m., owner Alice Bermejo told Inside Edition Digital. The note, included in the online order form's "additional instructions," asked for police help and said "Please don't make it obvious."
Quick-thinking employees at the Irish cafe immediately called the owner's husband for guidance, Bermejo said.
"It was a strange message because you could see that it was wrote like in a hurry," she said. "It wasn't correct. So we could see that it was someone that was in distress.," Bermejo said.
Her husband told the workers to notify police.
That led to the arrest of 32-year-old Kemoy Royal in the Bronx borough of New York City, on multiple charges including rape, unlawful imprisonment and assault, the New York Police Department told Inside Edition Digital.
Royal is being held in lieu of $25,000 bail, and his first court appearance is scheduled for Friday, according to online records.
"Thankfully, the girls paid attention," Bermejo said. "We always watch the notes because we don't want to make mistakes on customers' orders."
The owner said she thinks the victim may have "told him, 'Listen, I'm hungry. Can we order some food?' And that's her thinking, like I can send a message. I just still can't believe that it happened," Bermejo said.
A friend of the 24-year-old woman later called the restaurant to thank its employees and to say she was safe, Bermejo said.
The workers were very happy that they "were able to help somebody," the owner said.
