Somewhere else in the country or the state, some people might need our help. There are those fighting the silent battles waiting for someone to approach them and talk to them.
Others, though, cry for help.
I mean, there are those who literally scream or beg for rescue.
At first, this will send us a wave of panic, too. ‘What should I do?’ we often ask.
Because even if we’re someone’s last string of hope, we might be in peril, too, if we don’t act fast and smart. Luckily for some, our survival instinct is enough.
Kevin Huntington knows this all too well.
Kevin works in construction, and he is familiar with Interstate 95 in Northern Virginia.
He often passes by interstate highways that he knows a lot of strange, dangerous things happen here.
It was an ordinary Thursday until it wasn’t.
He was doing roadwork at the said interstate near Mile Marker 155. It was a bustling highway like usual, but a speeding car caught this attention.
What alarmed him was a woman jumping out of a speeding vehicle.
She continued to run toward Kevin.
All the while, the woman was shouting for help and telling him to call 911.
He did so and tried to call for help and report what is happening. Kevin asked the woman what had happened, and she said that a man was trying to kill her.
If you were in his shoes, you would probably panic, too, because whoever was after her might go after you.
But Kevin didn’t cower.
Instead, he told the woman to stay behind him, ensuring that nothing bad would happen to her.
The man, who was later identified as Aaron Berg, approached them and appeared by their shoulder. He also saw that Aaron was talking to someone on the phone.
Luckily, police came and arrested Aaron.
The police had already received an abduction report at the interstate and were on the hunt for him.
They tracked him down, and he was arrested for “kidnapping, strangling, and sexually assaulting an 18-year-old.”
Thanks to Kevin, the woman escaped.
She was now free from her attacker and was brought home safe.
We couldn’t imagine the trauma that woman went through. Without Kevin’s help and instinct during that time of emergency, anything could have happened to her.
Kevin hasn’t heard from her since, but he’s hoping to meet her and check if she’s doing okay. Kevin also wanted to share what he learned from that experience.
“Pick up the phone and help somebody; you never know whose life you may save,” he told WTVR.
From that experience alone, we understand why he’d ask people to do this.
At times, it’s not as easy as it seems, and the fear of seeing someone asking for help because their life is in danger might be shocking for you, too.
But like Kevin, the call for help can easily prompt our instincts to do the best we can. In little ways, like a simple phone call, we can be heroes.