Kidnapped Arizona Woman Slips Note Asking Gas Station Customer to ‘Call 911’

An Arizona woman was abducted earlier this week from a car dealership in Phoenix and then aided her own rescue when she slipped a note to a fellow customer at a Chevron station in Seligman, more than 160 miles away.

The note gave the woman’s name and said she’d been kidnapped, asking the customer to call 911. The note included a description of the van she was in with her abductor and said they were headed toward Kingman and Las Vegas, the Yavapai County Sheriff’s Office said.

The customer called 911 , relaying that  the van headed westbound on Interstate 40 and providing descriptions of the clothing worn by both the woman and her alleged abductor.

Deputies contacted the state Department of Public Safety for assistance, and the van was stopped at mile post 116 on the highway. They found the woman and the suspect, identified as Jacob Wilhoit, 41.

Detectives learned that the victim’s mother reported her missing earlier that afternoon and that she had been entered as a missing/endangered person with Wilhoit listed by name as a person of interest.

The sheriff’s office said Wilhoit was wearing a wig and posing as an Uber driver when he abducted the woman at about 7 a.m. on Monday. He restrained her and drove to Las Vegas, spending the night at a Lake Mead park before driving back into Arizona, stopping at the Seligman gas station at about 5 p.m. on Tuesday.

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“It is a crazy story, but one that we wanted to tell specifically because of what the victim did for herself to help herself,” Yavapai County Sheriff’s Office spokesperson Kristin Greene told reporters, according to ABC News.

“A lot of us might’ve looked at this person like she was crazy, and thank goodness this customer took her seriously and the customer called 911,” she added.

Investigators said they found multiple firearms in Wilhoit’s van “in plain view.” He has been charged with harassment, threatening and intimidating, aggravated assault, unlawful imprisonment, kidnapping, and multple other assault charges.

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[Featured image: Jason Wilhoit and the note the victim slipped the gas station customer/Yavapai County Sheriff’s Office]