AIKEN COUNTY, S.C. — A Georgia truck driver and preacher became an unlikely hero Friday morning when he used his big rig to shield a terrified young woman, fresh off her high school graduation, from a sicko who allegedly snatched her in handcuffs while posing as a cop.
Anthony Moore was rolling down Williston Road near Boggy Gut Road around 7 a.m. when the nightmare unfolded right in front of his dashcam: a young woman in handcuffs sprinting frantically across the rural highway, dodging a white Cadillac that was trying to run her down.
“She says, ‘Help me, help me. He’s trying to kidnap me,’” Moore recalled.
The woman bolted straight for his truck. As she reached his door, the suspect, identified by authorities as 39-year-old Jonathan Willard, pulled up alongside, flashed what looked like a badge sideways, and claimed he was law enforcement.
“She jumped in my car and said, ‘No, he is not. He tried to kidnap me, sir,’” Moore said.
Willard, smoking a cigarette and driving a white Cadillac, allegedly used fake police credentials and toy-style restraints to abduct the recent grad after flashing a bogus badge. He had taken her phone and diploma before she managed to escape when he stopped at a gated driveway.
Moore positioned his rig to block the suspect, protecting the panicked victim until another good Samaritan stopped, removed her cuffs, and called 911. Willard took off, but not for long.
The Aiken County Sheriff’s Office used Moore’s dashcam footage to ID the creep. Willard was arrested the next day and hit with charges of kidnapping and impersonating a law enforcement officer. He’s being held without bond.
Maj. Jason Griffin noted that stranger abductions like this are rare, making Moore’s split-second intervention even more critical.
Moore, who doubles as a pastor, sees zero coincidence in the timing.“Delayed divine timing,” he said. “There is an appointed place for us to be at an appointed time.”
The dashcam video, now going viral, shows the woman darting desperately between lanes as vehicles pass and the suspect’s car aggressively maneuvers. Moore can be heard reacting in real time, later telling reporters he wished he could have gotten the cuffs off her himself.
Locals and social media users are hailing the trucker as a real-life guardian angel, with plenty calling it straight-up divine intervention.“God put him there,” one commenter wrote. Others praised the young woman for her bravery in breaking free and running into traffic.
In a region where truckers are the backbone of the highways, this one proved they’re also everyday heroes with eyes on the road and hearts in the right place.
