Glad she is safe but 7 minutes is to long.
A Pleasant Grove grandmother said she was nearly kidnapped on her way home from a convenience store. Her ordeal was recorded in her call to 911, but it didn't end once she was in the safety of a squad car.
Fortunately for 45-year-old Elizabeth Smith, a 911 operator was listening in the wee hours of Sunday July 15.
A man in a truck followed her as she walked home from a nearby Valero on Jim Miller Road.
"He kept begging me to get in the car. And that's when he pulled up again. Then he pulled around another street and he was sitting there," Smith told the 911 operator.
She said she doesn't have a car and was walking at 3 a.m. because her 2-month-old granddaughter who lives with her had a fever that wouldn't break. She needed Tylenol.
But she soon found herself in a world of panic.
"He pointed a gun and told me to get in the truck. He just keeps driving up and down in the truck," Smith said on the 911 call.
About seven minutes into the call police arrived.
Smith was relieved to be sitting in a squad car with an officer when she saw the man again.
"The blue truck went right past us and I screamed to her, I said that's him. And she screams to somebody she thinks that's him. And next thing I know he's in a police chase," she said.
With guns drawn, police arrested 19-year-old Braulio Cerda on an aggravated assault charge.
"It shocked me that he had the nerve to go by," Smith said.
She said she will never forget his face, the fear and the thoughts that raced through her mind.
"How am I going to get away without being shot? When I seen the gun actually I'm thinking about the kids and how to get back to them," she said.
Cerda was arrested and charged but later released. Smith said that's because she doesn't have a car and couldn't get to the police station to do the photo lineup.
Police said in cases like that other arrangements can be made. And for this charge they pointed out the statute of limitations is three years so it can still be pursued if Smith decides to follow up.
Read more:
Grandmother attacked on late-night medicine run - Dallas News | myFOXdfw.com 
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