A would-be kidnapper met his match over the weekend when he attempted to grab four young girls outside of a Michigan convenience store. The brave girls thwarted their attacker by throwing hot coffee on him and fighting back, according to police.
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The confrontation took place Friday evening, when 22-year-old Bruce Hipkins followed the girls, ages 11 to 14, as they left a gas station convenience store in Millington, Michigan, ABC News reported. According to police, Hipkins grabbed on of the girls and “told her she was coming with him.”
“The other three girls kicked, hit, and threw their hot coffee on him,” Officers with the Millington Police Department said in a statement Saturday. “The suspect let the young girl go and grabbed another one of the girls by her hair. The suspect was again kicked and hit by the girls until he let her go and fled on foot.”
Sisters Allison and Lauren Eickhoff, ages 11 and 13, recalled the traumatic encounter in an interview with WJRT-TV.
“He said, ‘You’re coming with me.’ And like, he grabbed my face,” Allison said.
“This cannot be happening,” she thought at the time. “I thought it was a test at first, but then I’m like, ‘This is real.’”
Allison’s older sister Lauren said she screamed and did all that she could to deter the attacker. The girls’ father had taught them to fight back if they ever sensed they were in a dangerous situation, Lauren added.
“I grabbed my drink and chucked it at his head. I tried, I punched him in the head,” she said. “Seeing that your little sister was going to get taken is very scary.”
All four girls managed to escape unharmed and ran to a nearby hotel, where they called to report the incident.
Officers tracked down Hipkins minutes later, according to WJRT, and arrested him on charges of unlawful imprisonment, assault and battery and two counts of criminal sexual conduct, ABC reported.
As of Tuesday, Hipkins is being held at the Tuscola County Jail on a bond of $250,000.
(H/T: ABC News)