Kidnapped girl rescued after passer-by spots terrifying note left in car window

The heart-breaking note penned by the girl (Image: US Department of Justice ) A 13-year-old girl who was kidnapped and sexually assaulted has been rescued after Good Samaritans raised the alarm when they saw her hold up a ‘Help Me!’ sign. An FBI report said the teenager had endured a horrifying ordeal after being snatched at gunpoint as she walked down a street in San Antonio, Texas, on July 6. The youngster had reportedly left home without telling her parents because she wanted to track down a friend who had moved to Australia. On July 9, more than 1,300 miles away in Long Beach, Southern California, a passer-by saw the girl hold up a piece of white paper with ‘Help Me!’ written on it in red pen against the inside of a window of a parked car. She had written the note while the man alleged to have taken her, Steven Robert Sablan, 61, of Cleburne, Texas, was inside a laundromat. The witness dialled 911 and an FBI report states when officers from Long Beach PD arrived they found Sablan standing outside the car and they observed the girl mouth the word ‘help”. (stock photo) the girl was found in the car by police officers (Image: Getty ) During the arrest, officers found a pair of silver handcuffs in Sablan’s back pocket and that he was wanted for burglary in Fort Worth. A search of the vehicle turned up a black plastic BB gun, the ‘help me’ sign, a switchblade knife and black handcuffs in packaging labelled ‘Fetish Fantasy Series Designer Cuffs,’ the federal document said. Sablan was held at the federal Metropolitan Detention Center in downtown Los Angeles before he was indicted on Thursday by a federal grand jury on charges of kidnapping and transportation of a minor with intent to engage in criminal sexual activity, according to the US attorney’s office in Los Angeles. In a police press release the Long Beach PD said: ‘Through their investigation, officers learned the Good Samaritans were in a parking lot when they saw the victim in a parked vehicle holding up a piece of paper with ‘help me’ written on it. ‘They acknowledged the note and immediately called 9-1-1.’ The girl’s mother had reported her missing on July 7, an FBI report states. The girl was driven thousands of miles from her home in Texas to Southern California (Image: Getty ) When the girl was approached by Sablan in a Nissan car on July 6, he raised a black handgun to her and told her: ‘If you don’t get in the car with me, I am going to hurt you’, according to a statement from an agent. According to the account, the girl had left home without telling her parents because she was attempting to visit a school friend who had moved to Australia a year earlier but kept in touch through an internet chatroom. At some point after getting in Sablan’s car, the girl told him about her friend and Sablan said he could take her to a cruise ship to go to Australia, but that she would have to do something for him, the affidavit said. The suspect stopped the car and sexually assaulted the girl, who told him to stop but was scared that she would be hurt if she did not comply, the agent wrote. The girl is reported to have left home without telling her parents to visit a friend in Australia (Image: Getty ) Sablan sexually assaulted the girl several more times on the drive from San Antonio through New Mexico and Arizona and into California, the affidavit said. The affidavit said Sablan was convicted of robbery with a deadly weapon in 1979, robbery with a deadly weapon and burglary in 1985 and possession of a controlled substance in 2016. If convicted of both charges in Thursday’s indictment, Sablan would face a statutory maximum sentence of life in federal prison. An indictment is merely an allegation. All defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law. The girl was placed in the custody of the Los Angeles County Department of Children and Family Services.