Viking Driver Aids Abducted Girl, Helps Nab Kidnapping Suspect

August 30, 2000 10:18 AM, EDT

Sometimes getting called in for extra duty can provide more than financial rewards. In the case of Carl Tafua, a local pickup and delivery driver for Viking Freight of San Jose, it provided the opportunity to be a hero.

	Viking Freight
	Viking driver Carl Tafua delivered 8-year-old captive to safety of parents and, with the help of his two-way radio, her abductor to the police.

On Aug. 10, Midsi Sanchez, an 8-year-old girl living in Vallejo, Calif., was abducted while walking home from school. Two days later, Tafua had the good fortune of being in the right place at the right time and rescued the frightened child.

Tafua was originally scheduled to be off that day, but instead answered a company call for him to do some extra work. He had just left the company yard and pulled onto Laurelwood Road in Santa Clara that morning when a young girl ran toward his vehicle, climbed the two steps to the door of his truck and crawled through the open window onto his lap.

"She was yelling, ‘Here he comes, he’s going to kill me,’" Tafua said, recalling that he had heard about the missing girl from news reports.

For the full story, see the Aug. 28 print edition of Transport Topics. Subscribe today.