It isn’t just every parent’s nightmare: it’s the nightmare of every human being with a functioning soul. Police in Florida say that a stranger attacked a 9-year-old girl in the ladies’ rest room of a Best Buy store on Friday night while her mother was paying for her purchases. Another customer heard her screams, and witnesses say that employees and other bystanders rushed in to save the child.

Reports differ regarding how exactly the girl ended up alone in the ladies’ room with a strange 29-year-old man: later reports say that she was using the facilities alone while her mother paid, but earlier information was that the man abducted her while her mother wasn’t paying attention. What authorities do know is that the child was beaten and the man attempted to suffocate her, holding her head in the toilet with a plastic bag over her face. Another customer heard the attack and the child’s screams, and went to get help. Best Buy employees rushed to the rescue, grabbing the girl from under the bathroom stall. Police believe that the attacker would have killed her if not for their quick action.

Well done, Best Buy employees and customers. We all like to think that we would have done the same thing in that situation, but the team at this Best Buy really did act to save a little girl’s life.

This truly must be the week for heroic national chain employees in Florida.

Police: James Patrick Tadros nearly kills girl in Best Buy bathroom [First Coast News] (via Daily News – thanks, Dov!) (WARNING: AUTO-PLAY VIDEO)
9-year-old attack victim home from hospital, faces long recovery from trauma [WOKV]

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