The kidnapper thought they’d be an easy target, but little did he know…
Four young girls from Michigan were nearly kidnapped when they went out at night to a gas station. The girls were followed by a man who grabbed one of them.
The girls, ages 11-14, were leaving a Speedway when they noticed they were being watched. 22-year-old Bruce Hipkins had been eyeballing the group, a gross fact later confirmed by surveillance footage from the store. When the young girls left and crossed the street to escape him, he followed them.
Millington Police Chief Jason Oliver tells ABC News 12 that the girls did the right thing. “They decided to go across the street where the lights are, to a lit area,” he said.
But Hipkins was undeterred.
Lauren Eickhoff, 13, says it was her 11-year-old sister that he went after first.
“(He was) behind my sister and I screamed, ‘Allison’ and then he attacked.” Allison says, “He said, ‘you’re coming with me’. And like, he grabbed my face.” At first, the little girl thought the attack was some kind of joke. “This can not be happening, I thought it was a test at first but them I’m like, ‘this is real’,” she says.
Then Lauren sprang into action. She used the only weapon she had against the kidnapper—her hot cup of coffee—and flung it in the attacker’s face. Then the other two friends joined in as well, all three of the girls attacking the man with punches and kicks while he still had a hold on Allison.
The girls’ efforts caused him to release 11-year-old Allison, but then he went for the oldest girl in the group, aged fourteen. He grabbed her by the hair, but once again, her friends would not give up the fight and continued to scream, kick, and punch until he finally let go and ran away.
As the Dollar General was closed, the group ran as fast as they could to an open restaurant a block away, where someone called 911.
Hipkins was arrested after the girls called for help from a nearby inn. Police say surveillance video shows him watching the girls inside the convenience store before following them out. They’d crossed a street to avoid him in what Millington Police Chief Oliver calls the first of many right moves.
“They did what they needed to do,” he says. Hipkins is currently in Tuscola County Jail on a $250,000 bond. He’s wearing a coffee-stained T-shirt in a booking photo.
For others who find themselves in a similar situation, the girls have a piece of advice.
They urged others to “always fight back because you always have a chance.” And always remember that anything you have on you can be used as a weapon – a set of keys, your cardigan, or in this case, the very beverage in your hand.
Watch the video below for more details:
Sources: AWM, InsideEdition, ABC News 12