A truck-driving preacher who helped foil an alleged kidnapping in South Carolina — captured on his rig’s dashboard camera — said Thursday that he was not a hero, but a “divine” instrument.
Anthony J. Moore, 53, was running a route through Aiken County, about 20 miles from the Georgia border, last Friday when a woman ran directly into his path with her hands cuffed behind her back.
The video, which has no audio, shows the scene play out: The woman crosses in front of the truck, and a man in a Cadillac that had been parked along the roadside swerves in front of the truck before speeding away. The woman then runs down the road as the man drives off.
“I just see it as a divine assignment from God, because had not I been there with the dashcam … they probably wouldn’t have caught the footage that needed to be catched,” Moore told The Associated Press in a telephone interview. “It was another assignment from God, a special assignment from God. That a life needed to be saved.”
Authorities arrested Jonathan Willard, 39, of New Ellenton, on one count each of kidnapping and impersonation of a law enforcement officer. He remained held Thursday at the Aiken County Detention Center.
According to an incident report from the Aiken County Sheriff’s Department, the woman was out walking when a man in a green Cadillac “came from behind her and told her he was with the police.” She said he took her phone and Social Security card, placed her in handcuffs and put her in the back seat of the vehicle.
The woman told police the man pulled over near a gated property and stepped out of the car. She said she tried to open the rear doors, but they were locked.
While the man rummaged through the trunk, she said, she climbed over the seat and fled through the open driver’s side door.
Moore was driving south of Aiken when he spotted the woman running toward him.
“I let my window down and she said, ‘Please help me. He’s trying to kidnap me,'” Moore said.
As the woman veered off, Moore said, the man pursuing her pulled up alongside him and displayed “what looks to be a badge.”
“And he said, ‘I’m with law enforcement, and she jumped out of my car,'” Moore recounted.
After the car fled, other bystanders called 911, helped remove the cuffs from the woman and gave her water. Moore said she told him she had graduated just the day before, and that the man had also taken her diploma.
She asked Moore to accompany her back to the spot where she had escaped, to check whether the man had discarded her belongings. He said they found nothing.
Court officials did not immediately release information about any upcoming hearings or whether Willard has an attorney. The AP called the jail to speak with Willard, but the request was denied.
Moore serves as pastor of Amazing Grace Ministries in Denmark, South Carolina. He is also a 27-year Army veteran, according to his wife, Betty, an associate pastor at the church.
“When I learned that he was caught the next day I was relieved of a lot of things that he didn’t get away,” he said, “to go try that again someplace else.”
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