Attempted abduction victim recounts close call with attacker

The victim of an attempted abduction in a southern Alberta hamlet is speaking out about the close call that left her shaken.

The incident happened Wednesday afternoon in Langdon, about 12 kilometres east of Calgary. The 24-year-old Taber corn vendor was set up in a parking lot when she was approached by a stranger.

The woman said the man started taking pictures of her with his cellphone. When she demanded the man delete the pictures, he became angry.

"I didn't know what to do," said the victim, who agreed to speak with CBC News on the condition of anonymity.

She said he kept asking her to take off her sunglasses.

"He was like, 'Take them off, I want to see your eyes,' and getting mad with me."

'I tried to stay calm'

The man demanded the woman's phone number and kept "throwing his phone" in her face, the victim said.

That's when the woman saw an opportunity to reach out for help. She took the man's phone and used it to text one of her friends.

"I tried to stay calm and keep a conversation going with him so I could get a bunch of information from him," she said.

"He was just really creepy, so I knew as long as I had a phone number … that's why I texted my friend off of his phone, just in case, you know?"

'I was so distraught'

The woman then made a phone call to her friend, talking in code so as not to alert the man that she was calling for help.

The woman said the friend notified her boss, who told her to leave the area as fast as she could. When the victim started to pack up to leave, the man got violent, she said.

"And he's like 'no, we're going to go to my house for some fun,' and he grabs me and starts dragging me to his car," she said.

The woman said the man's advances were stopped when a Good Samaritan stepped in.

A nearby woman saw the victim was in distress and asked to buy corn from the victim as a way of separating her from the man.

"I don't even remember if she bought corn, I was so distraught," the victim said. "He was like, 'I'm leaving,' and got in his car and drove off."

Neither the victim nor the Good Samaritan were able to get the man's licence plate number, but surveillance camera footage from a nearby store recorded images of the vehicle leaving the area.

'I can't run scared my whole life'

The woman said she kept fairly calm after the ordeal but started to cry when she was reporting the incident to the RCMP.

The woman was back to work on Friday, selling her corn in the same parking lot, saying if she didn't come back, it would mean her attacker wins.

"I can't let people like that win," she said. "I can't run scared my whole life just because a bad thing happens."

Police say the man drove a red, four-door sedan.

He is described as having darker skin and stood about six feet tall. He wore a white T-shirt with an emblem and blue jeans.

RCMP are asking anyone with any information to contact them at 403-934-3968.

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