Good Samaritan foils kidnapping of girl walking to school in Santa Ana

SANTA ANA, Calif. (KABC) -- A 12-year-old girl is safe now after a good Samaritan stopped a kidnapping in progress Wednesday.

It was an emotional goodbye for Amy Martinez and the stranger who saved her.

"I thought that I was never going to see my mom or my family again," Martinez said.

Martinez was walking on Main Street in Santa Ana to Lathrop Intermediate School Wednesday morning when a woman ran across the street and grabbed her.

As the woman forced her to walk, Martinez saw another woman driving by who rolled down her window.

"Amy was kind of struggling to get away, so then those were the signs that something wasn't right," said the good Samaritan, who did not want to be identified.

She pulled over and asked Martinez if she was OK, and the girl said no.

"I was basically yelling, 'Let her go,' so as soon as my voice changed, she let her go and Amy walked into my car," the good Samaritan said.

She called police as she drove the shaken girl to school. That's where Martinez reunited with her aunt.

"It's a place where there's a lot of cars and not one stopped until this lady came, in our eyes, she's our angel," said Cinthia Esparza, Martinez's aunt.

Santa Ana police found and arrested the transient woman accused of the kidnapping.

As for the Good Samaritan, she said her motherly instinct kicked in, and she'd do it again if she had to.

"You're a parent, you see somebody else's child in danger, automatically you react as if it was yours," she said.