A British backpacker has been rescued after reportedly being held captive in a car after she managed to text her location to her father back home in the UK.
Mary Kate Heys says she feared for the safety of a man she had met a few days before at the Backpacker hostel where she was staying.
When he woke her up in the middle of the night by the 22-year-old Swedish man, she says he was in a “manic state” and wanted her to “go on an adventure”. Fearing for his safety she agreed to go with him but soon realised it was a mistake.
“He said we were going to Brisbane on an adventure and I was really concerned, his eyes were all wide and I couldn’t tell if he was on drugs or not,” she told The Courier Mail.
“He kept talking about how ‘they’ were coming to get us and we had to get to Cairns to escape, I was so scared and I thought I was going to die.’’
Ms Heys eventually convinced the man to stop at a petrol station so she could get a drink, where she asked the woman behind the counter to call police because the man she was with would not let her leave.
They continued to drive and when the police didn’t arrive she decided to try and text message her dad back home in the UK to call police.
She texted him a screen shot of her location in google maps.
“When the police car finally put its lights on I have never been so relieved in my life,” she said. Ms Heys said as soon as her kidnapper slowed she leapt out of the car and ran.
“I didn’t even wait for it to stop moving, I just ran out because I was so terrified,” she said.
A QPS spokesperson tells The Mirror that the man was then taken to the mental health unit of a hospital.
“Basically what happened was they have gotten in a car down at the Sunshine Coast and they have driven up to Gympie,” the spokesman told The Mirror.
“She has said that she was being held against her will. So it was a deprivation of liberty job. Police have then pulled the car over in Gympie.
“They have spoken to both parties involved. He was then taken to the hospital but I believe he did go to the mental health unit there.
“Then the woman has told police she did not want any further action taken on it. Basically, not press any charges.
“There is no further action from our end.”
