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This Uber Driver Saved A Teenage Girl From A Sex Trafficking Ring

Photo: Courtesy of Uber.
An Uber driver in Sacramento, CA, is the real-life hero we all need. Keith Avila, a 34-year-old driver, helped save a 16-year-old girl from a child sex trafficking ring earlier this week, NBC Latino reported. According to Avila, his driving shift on Monday night started out pretty much the same as any other. But once he picked up two women and a teenage girl, things took an alarming turn. The women were allegedly talking openly about delivering the teenager to a "john" once they made it to the Holiday Inn hotel Avila was driving them to. "They just started talking right in front of me, as if I wasn't listening," he said in a Facebook Live stream he started after giving a statement to the police. After he dropped them off, Avila drove away and immediately called the cops. "The worst thing I thought would happen when driving Uber is that I would be getting drunk passengers and I would have to handle them," Avila told NBC Latino. "All my life, I thought about people throwing up in the car as the worst scenario."
Once the police made it to the hotel, they detained the two passengers in Avila's car: Destiny Pettway, 25, and Maria Westley, 31, NBC Latino reported. The teenage victim, who had been in the car along with the women, was inside a hotel room with 20-year-old Disney Vang, who was also arrested on suspicions of sexual activity with a minor. According to the police, the teen girl was a runaway whose guardians have yet to be located. She will stay in an "alternative housing situation" until then, NBC Latino reported.

Avila, a first-generation Mexican-American, was congratulated by a member of the Uber Safety Team. He was also informed that the people involved in the incident are permanently banned from using the application. As of Thursday, his Facebook Live video had almost 136,000 views. Watch it below.

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