Police officers responded to a call in San Jose, California, after concerned residents heard a woman screaming inside her apartment. When the officers arrived, they found she'd been stabbed.
The woman was alive but was rushed to the hospital with serious injuries. Thankfully, she is expected to survive.
Her ex-boyfriend, 24-year-old Victor Magana, reportedly attacked her in a fit of rage before taking off with their 2-year-old daughter.
Cops issued an Amber Alert across the state of California but warned people not approach him, as he was armed and dangerous.
Hours passed by, and Magana and the toddler were still MIA.
The next morning, a pair tourists from Oregon — Al Ashcroft and his wife Joanne — were making their way through California on a road trip. Al had seen the Amber Alert and half-jokingly told Joanne he'd be the one to "catch the bad guy." Joanne laughed it off; the chances of that happening were slim to none, after all.
The couple pulled up to a gas station 200 miles from where Victor Magana stabbed his girlfriend. As fate would have it, Al recognized Magana's car in the parking lot!
Magana had gone into the gas station to use the bathroom but accidentally locked his keys in the car, leaving the toddler strapped in her car seat. Magana began smashing a rock into the window.
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But by this point, the other gas station customers and passers-by caught wind of Magana's identity — and what they did next is both frightening and heroic.
