Workers saw the car in a field and blocked it.
Two Louisiana sanitation workers are being hailed as heroes for saving a 10-year-old girl who was kidnapped from a relative’s home.
The girl, Jalisa Lasalle, disappeared from a family member’s home in New Iberia on Sunday between 1 pm and 2 pm, according to the New Iberia Police Department. Investigators initially believed she was in “imminent danger”, and an Amber Alert detailing a gray 2012 Nissan Altima into which Jalisa was last seen entering was issued in the middle of the night.
Pelican Waste & Debris workers Dion Merrick and Brandon Antoine knew something was wrong when they spotted a silver sedan in the middle of a field about 20 miles away in St. Martin’s parish during their morning garbage collection route of Sunday.
“Something told me … I said, what is that car doing in the field like that?” Merrick said in a video posted on Facebook Live.
They then used the garbage truck to block the car’s escape and called the police, said Merrick.
“I blocked the truck, [making] sure he couldn’t get out, “he said.
After a responding officer praised the men for their actions, Merrick started to cry.
“She’s safe now,” said Merrick, adding that he has a daughter of his own.
Pelican CEO Roddie Matherne praised his employees in a statement to ABC News.
“We couldn’t be more proud of Dion and Brandon,” said Matherne by email. “In fact, our entire Pelican Waste team has been working heroically without fail during the pandemic, silently, professionally and consistently, serving the communities where we collect trash and rubbish. They usually respond in other ways during the trip. That was an exceptional thing that may well have saved a girl’s life [life].
In the video, suspect Michael Sereal, 33, can be seen being taken out of the silver sedan by the police. At one point, he can be heard shouting, “Why are you doing this to me?”
He is known to one of the girl’s family members, ABC Lafayette, Louisiana, affiliate WATC said.
Sereal, from New Iberia, is currently being held in the Iberia Parish Jail without bail on charges of qualified kidnapping of a child and not registering as a sex offender, according to online prison records. He is listed in the New Iberia sex offender database for a conviction for carnal knowledge of a young man.
It is not clear whether Sereal hired a lawyer.
The child was evaluated by the medical team after being found, according to the Louisiana State Police. A photo shared on the sanitation company’s Facebook page after the rescue shows her posing alongside Merrick and Antoine.
The investigation is ongoing, the police said.