'Don’t Roofie Someone On Our Watch'
The internet has crowned three women heroines after their account of saving another woman from an alleged date rape went viral on Facebook.
Sonia Ulrich along with two friends Monica Kenyon and Marla Saltzer, were enjoying dinner at the Fig at the Fairmont restaurant when Kenyon became aware of the suspicious behaviour of a male diner when his date went to the loo. As Ulrich recounts: “I was going on about something and saw Monica staring behind and making a funny face. I stopped. 'What's going on?' After a few second she said 'That guy just put something in her drink.'
'He pulled her glass toward him, kind of awkwardly, then he took out a little black vial. He opened it up and dropped something in. Then he tried to play it cool, like checking his phone and hiding the vial in his hand and then trying to bring it back down slyly.'
It’s hard to know what you would do in this situation until it happens to you, but the three heroic women quickly decided to try and intervene in order to save the young woman. Despite being unsure how to handle the situation, Ulrich followed her instinct, telling readers: “I got up to find her in the bathroom to tell her. Warn her. Tell her to get up and leave this creep. Make him drink it. Something.”
What the women discovered next made the whole scenario even more shocking. When Ulrich followed the woman to the bathroom to tell her what she’d seen and ask how well she knew her date, she got the unexpected response 'he’s one of my best friends.'
'Shit. Yeah. One of her best friends. They had known each other for a year and a half. They worked together.'
The woman returned to her date and the server, who had been notified of the incident by Saltzer, allowed her to order sparkling water so she didn’t have to drink from the spiked glass. She continued to act cool for a further 40 minutes, allowing staff to check the CCTV footage and call the police. The man was then arrested by police.
Speaking to Mashable, Sergeant Jeff Glaser of the Santa Monica Police Department confirmed that the incident had occurred. The 24 year old man is currently being held on a $1 million bail.
Concluding her post, Ulrich urges others to overcome awkwardness and uncertainty to confront date rape head on: 'to everyone who sees this and shares this and reminds each other that yes, you SHOULD say something. Even if it's awkward or weird or just uncertain if anything can be done.'
Heroines, we salute you.
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This article originally appeared on The Debrief.