Quick-Thinking Airline Agent Saves Two Teenage Girls From Human Traffickers

A gut feeling from an airline agent caused her to alert authorities and potentially save a couple of young girls from a predator.

A gut feeling

When a couple of teenagers, aged 15 and 17, walked up to the airline counter for their flight from Sacramento to New York, the agent got suspicious.

The girls were carrying a bunch of small bags, but had no ID.

“The way they kept looking back-and-forth at each other like they weren’t really sure, and they were texting someone on the phone, and that person was giving them answers,” said the agent, Denice Miracle, to CBS Sacramento.

She was also concerned since the name on the credit card that paid for the flights was under a different name.

“It was a first-class ticket; it was very expensive. I told a supervisor go to call the sheriff that it just doesn’t feel right. It just didn’t feel right,” she added.

Likely victims of human trafficking

When sheriff's deputies came to speak to the tees, they said they'd met someone named "Drey" on Instagram who invited them to New York. He told them he'd pay $2,000 for a modeling gig and fly them back home — but they were shocked to find out that he'd only paid for a one-way ticket.

“They were somewhat flippant saying that no, that can’t be true," said Deputy Todd Sanderson, "and I said, ‘No, the airline says you have a one-way ticket,’ and I said ‘It’s my belief you’re going back there not to do the things you think you’re going to do.’ And they said ‘I wouldn’t let anything happen that I didn’t want to.’ And I said, ‘Well, probably you wouldn’t have a choice in the matter.’”

Gone without a trace

When police went to investigate Drey on Instagram, all social media accounts had been deleted, suggesting that this person is an expert at luring teens away from home.

Sanderson said that without the airline agent, the teens would undoubtedly have been victims of human trafficking.

“She probably really was their miracle that day whether they want to believe it or not."

Todd Sanderson

Miracles do happen

It would have been easy for the airline agent to let those two teenagers through. They had a ticket, and their bags -- just let them go on their way. But she didn't. She followed her gut instead, alerting authorities who say these teens were likely to become victims of human trafficking when they arrived in New York.

It's easy for all of us to look the other way, to do nothing instead of causing a fuss. But this story proves that all it can take to save someone's life is to follow your gut. Who knows, if you do that, you might just make miracles happen.

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