A woman was rescued from a hostage situation after sending a note to a New York City restaurant through a food delivery app, according to police and the business owner.
“Please call the police his going to call me when u delivered come with the cones please don’t make it obvious,” the 24-year-old woman wrote in the additional instructions portion of her order to The Chipper Truck Cafe in the Bronx, according to a Facebook post on the restaurant’s page.
The incident led to a man’s arrest early Sunday morning on charges including rape, the New York City Police Department confirmed.
The order for a breakfast sandwich and a burger came into the restaurant that day at 5:51 a.m., said Alice Bermejo, who owns the cafe with her husband Valentino Bermejo.
“One of our workers got the note through Grubhub and read the note and saw what it said so they called my husband,” Alice Bermejo told USA TODAY Wednesday. “He told them to call the police and to cancel the order.”
The employee, Bermejo said, complied.
Bermejo said she eventually learned the woman was saved that morning.
“That’s all we knew until later on a detective called us Sunday afternoon that there was an arrest and a girl was saved”,” she said. We were like ‘Wow… this was real.’ Thankfully we were open and could help her.”
A NYPD spokesperson told USA TODAY that at 6:20 a.m. that day, police were alerted about the rape of the 24-year-old woman.
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Seven minutes later, police said, they arrested Kemoy Royal, 32, in connection to the crime.
Royal, who lives in the Bronx, is charged with rape, strangulation, unlawful prisonment and five other felony charges, police said.
Natalie Neysa Alund covers trending news for USA TODAY. Reach her at nalund@usatoday.com and follow her on Twitter @nataliealund.