A Texas woman stranded along the roadside with a flat tire was kidnapped and sexually assaulted by a man who pulled over and offered to assist, police say.
Reynaldo Tapia-Arcibar, 31, faces aggravated kidnapping and sexual abuse charges after the May 16 incident, according to Travis County Jail records.
Dispatchers in Austin received a call from a woman "screaming for help" and reporting that she had just been sexually assaulted around 3:30 a.m. that day, according to an affidavit reviewed by Fox 7 Austin. She told police that her assailant tricked her into getting inside his "boxy white SUV" after she had spent an hour waiting for help in the Northeastern part of the city.
Tapia-Arcibar told the woman that he was going to take her to get a replacement for her flat tire, then "shut the door quickly" behind her, the affidavit stated.
Instead, according to the document, he drove about 10 minutes north to an apartment complex where he sexually assaulted her. Before they went to the complex, the woman told police, she had asked to get out of the car and tried to open the car's locked doors.
Initially unable to escape, the woman sent her location to a friend to ask for help, per the affidavit. She dialed 911 once she was able to get out of the man's car.
Police arrived at the scene 10 minutes later and were able to get there so quickly because the woman shared her device location, Austin Police Association President Michael Bullock told Fox 7.
"If someone's location is being shared, then we're able to live track where they are, and it's a lot easier for us to get there more quickly," he said. "What she did is something that's very helpful to us to be able to get there a lot quicker. It's very smart thinking on her part."
Seven hours later, police spotted a man matching the woman's description leaving an apartment at the same complex, the Wildwood Apartments in the 7000 block of Cameron Road, and placed Tapia-Arcibar under arrest.
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Bullock said the "tragic" incident was not "something anyone should have to go through."
Anyone waiting for roadside assistance, he said, can call their local police to wait alongside them until help arrives. Bullock also advised that those calling roadside assistance services like AAA should always ask for the name of the person responding to them and the make and model of their car.
Currently, Tapia-Arcibar is being held on $50,000 bond and is next due in court on June 12. Should he post bond, a judge ruled that he wears a GPS ankle monitor and has no contact with the woman, Law & Crime reported.
Under Texas state law, aggravated kidnapping is a first-degree felony and carries a maximum sentence of life in prison, along with fines reaching $10,000.
