On December 18, a volunteer was tricked, attacked, and kidnapped by her ex-housekeeper who posed as a toy donor.
Videos by Wide Open Country
The victim, Erin Quinn, told her story to KTLA. She volunteers for the local holiday toy drive for her community in California. Sharing to the outlet, she said she had received a text the night before from a supposed donor from an unknown number.
The mystery donor provided an address for the toy pickup, and said she was an elderly lady named Connie.
When Quinn arrived to the house, she exited her vehicle and approached the door of the house. She then received a text, telling her to return to her vehicle as Connie will approach the car herself. During Quinn's brief absence from the car, however, the scammer slipped into her car.
The moment Quinn entered her car again someone grabbed her hair and put a Taser to her head. Her GoFundMe includes a statement from Quinn describing the awful incident.
Volunteer Took On A Brutal Car Ride As She Was Attacked By Scammer
The kidnapper ordered her to drive, while pulling her hair and repeatedly tasing her. "I was tased over 30 times in the head. The one that lasted almost a minute nearly killed me," she wrote. She attempted to make noise with the horn and draw attention to herself, but nothing came of it.
Unable to overpower her attacker, she would be forced to drive for 30 minutes. They eventually reached a construction site, although the workers did nothing despite seeing the hostage situation. Some recorded, but none acted.
"Nobody's doing anything, so I start driving [again] and as I'm driving, [the suspect] is Tasering me and pulling my hair and it caused me to crash my car," she recalled.
They fought outside of the car, although it was only after someone pulled the attacker away did she run away.
Throughout the ordeal, Quinn suffered burns, bruises, cuts, and missing clumps of hair.
During the fight, Quinn saw the attacker without what was apparently a bright blonde wig. It turned out to be her ex-housekeeper, Olga Mendez. Quinn has no idea why she'd do such a thing, although has an idea of what she may have been trying to do.
"I strongly believe that her plan was to kidnap me and take me to Mexico for either ransom or sale."
Olga Mendez is still out there, and no arrests have been made by the police although they are investigating.
