“When he initially picked me up I was watching where he drove,” Gladden told BuzzFeed News. “He never took eyes off the road.”
Once her gave her phone back, she quickly turned the screen’s brightness down and shared her location in a text message to her boyfriend. “It was the most logical thing to do.”
Her boyfriend, Tamir Bryant, asked her why she was in Atlanta when he got the text. “Kid napped,” Gladden responded. “Stop playing rn,” Bryant replied. “I’m headed to the police station.”
“I immediately realized it was serious. She would never play like that. She would never say that for no reason.”
Gladden’s attacker hadn’t seen she was texting her boyfriend. He locked her in trunk as he entered a gas station, but was ultimately unsuccessful in robbing it. “He then told me he was going to rob a Walmart or a Kroger to get the money.”
She was able to convince him to give back her phone again to look up directions. She once again made contact with her boyfriend:
At the nearest Kroger, the man once again locked Gladden in the trunk of her car. Moments later he released her, told her there was a security guard outside, and said they’d pass the night in the parking lot try to rob the Kroger in the morning.
By this point, Gladden’s boyfriend Bryant had arrived at the police station. “I was freaking out,” he said, after Gladden sent him two one-word texts: “knife” and “scared.” Officers asked Bryant to ask what type of car she was in, and when she replied “mine” the officers were able to trace the exact vehicle. They were receiving real-time updates via Bryant since Gladden had shared her location.
“I don’t want him to kill me.”
