2023-11-30 20:08:21
Her hand clenched into a fist, her thumb tightly clasped in her fingers: a McDonald’s employee in Milan recognized this silent cry for help and was able to save a young girl from being kidnapped.
IMAGO/Pond5 Images
Reacted with presence of mind: A McDonald’s employee recognized a secret sign for help and was able to save a young girl from an act of violence.
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In Milan, a McDonald’s employee notices the hand signal of a girl who is traveling with an older man. A clenched fist with the thumb under her fingers means: “I am in danger and need help.” The woman calls the police, who arrests the man. He had kidnapped the girl.
«She gave me the signal and I understood everything immediately. I was scared, but I had to intervene”: Because she knew the international sign for “I need help,” a McDonald’s employee was able to save a young girl in Milan from a possible act of violence, reported the Italian “La Repubblica”.
This is what happened: The employee of the fast food chain was standing in front of the branch with colleagues after work when a man asked her for a cigarette. She looked at the hands of a girl who was with the man.
The girl signaled to her that she was in danger by making the signal for help: place her thumb in her open palm and clench four fingers into a fist. The employee was familiar with the gesture from training courses and television campaigns. It means: “I am in danger and need help.”
The situation became delicate again
The woman then called the police: “It was an instinctive thing, at that moment I didn’t think that I could be in danger.”
In fact, the situation became even more delicate because the woman and her colleagues, who were now in the know, had to gain time until the police arrived. When he left with the girl, they even started chasing her.
After the man was arrested and the kidnapped girl was released, the two women’s eyes met. “She was shocked and scared,” reports the McDonald’s employee. She saw gratitude and relief in her eyes.
The help sign for people in need was originally conceived as an emergency gesture with which victims of domestic violence can draw attention to their situation in connection with the contact restrictions during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Hatto von Hatzfeld – Own work, CC0
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