What would you do if you were in Courtney Best’s shoes? While stepping out for a smoke break, Best, a Papa Murphy’s Pizza employee, received an amber alert on her phone. The alert asked that people in the area be on the lookout for a white Dodge Avenger.
Seconds later, she looked across the parking lot and saw the unthinkable: a white Dodge Avenger that perfectly fit the description of the kidnapper in the amber alert.
As is often the case when everyday people perform heroic acts, like the bus driver who saved a girl who fell out of a window, Courtney Best trusted her instincts — and it paid off.
“I stepped outside, I was standing by the trash can and I seen a white car pull up and I just happen to take my phone with me cause we don’t look at our phones at work, and I looked down and I saw ‘white Dodge Avenger amber alert’, and I was like, nah, that’s not him,” she told KRISTV. “The man was walking across the parking lot looking at me … cause I was the only person out here, with the little boy and the little boy looked scared and I was like ‘no, that’s not him.'”
However, it was him and the boy. They were entering the Family Dollar next door. Best had to think quickly.
“My stomach started knotting up, so I was like, ahh, I’m gonna go, I’m gonna check and see,” she said.
She got into her own car and scoped out the Dodge Avenger — the license plates matched. Best called 911 and followed the kidnapper in her car as he drove off.
“And I’m on the phone with 911 and I tell her, look, the plates match up, he’s turning left on Staples but I’m gonna follow him.”
The Corpus Christi police were immediately on the scene and arrested the suspect, Channing Galbraith. As for the kidnapped boy, 7-year old Nicholas Gomez, he is safe and sound.
See the story of how an ordinary pizza worker saved the life of an innocent child below and SHARE if you’ll be paying extra attention to those amber alerts from now on!
