Leitrim cafe owner in New York saves rape victim after getting note on delivery order

Alice, her husband and their nephew Tommy. As soon as they got the note, Alice and her husband told their staff to call the police straight away.

The Irish owner of a cafe in the Bronx saved a woman who was being held hostage after her staff got a delivery order through with a note begging them to call the police. 

A man is now facing charges of rape, unlawful imprisonment and other counts.

At 5am on Sunday, US time, Leitrim woman Alice O'Brien Bermejo and her staff got a confusing message in a delivery order for an Irish breakfast sandwich and a cheeseburger from Grubhub that said: "Please call police, his going to call me when u delivered come with the cones please don't make it obvious." 

The note left for the cafe through a delivery order app

The staff at the Chipper Truck Cafe in the Yonkers area of the Bronx weren't sure what to do, but Alice and her husband told them to call the police straight away, and not to bring the delivery to the address the order came from. 

Alice, a Drunkeerin native, said that the staff were incredibly nervous waiting to hear back from the police. 

"We weren't sure what to do, it all could have been a joke. The note said "call me" but we presumed the woman meant "kill me." 

The next afternoon the police came to us and said the woman was safe, that they saved her after she had been held hostage for five hours.

Police said the alleged kidnapper had also been arrested.

"They wanted us to know that the 23-year-old woman had thanked us for saving her life," Alice told the Irish Examiner. 

Since the woman was rescued, the NYPD has stated that the 32-year-old man who was arrested has been charged with rape, strangulation, criminal sex acts, unlawful imprisonment, sexual abuse, criminal possession of a weapon, assault and menacing authorities. 

He was also charged with attempted rape, sexual abuse and assault on a 26-year-old woman from a previous incident. 

The cafe owner moved to the States 18 years ago with she was 19 years old, and she met her husband, who is from Mexico, on the very avenue where they now co-own The Chipper Truck Cafe together. 

It has since emerged that while the woman was being held at knifepoint, the alleged kidnapper allowed her to use the phone to place a delivery order.

"We are so glad that our staff spotted the note on the order and that this woman is safe, and the man who did this is off the streets. 

"It has also emerged that he tried to do this to another woman the previous week, but she managed to get away," Alice said.