From a store bathroom, on a borrowed phone, woman reports she's been kidnapped, assaulted

A woman’s call for help from a convenience store, reporting that she’d been kidnapped and sexually assaulted, led to the capture and arrest of a Waterford man and two teenage males.

Deputies responded Wednesday to Triple R Gas and Mart, 12237 Bentley St., after a woman entered the convenience store, told a clerk she’d been kidnapped and asked to use a phone, Stanislaus County Sheriff’s Department spokesman Sgt. Tom Letras said. Her abductors stopped at Triple R for gas, and she used the ruse that she needed to use the restroom, Letras said.

The clerk provided a cordless phone to the woman, who immediately locked herself in the store bathroom and called 911. She provided a description of those who took her, and deputies detained one adult and one teen male as they left the store. The males went into the store when the victim failed to come out, Letras said.

At the gas station, deputies searched the vehicle the victim described and discovered a gun. “Upon reviewing surveillance video, they also were able to locate a gun that had been hidden on a store shelf,” Letras said.

The woman and the males were interviewed and it was determined that the alleged kidnapping and sexual assault occurred in Fresno County. The woman reported that four males picked her up and held her against her will overnight in Fresno County before bringing her to Waterford, Letras said.

The adult male, 18-year-old Anthony Sandoval, the 16-year-old with him at Triple R and another 16-year-old arrested Thursday night all were sought in a separate case — a robbery outside The Fruit Yard on Tuesday evening. In that case, the victim reported that he’d arranged to meet at the Yosemite Boulevard restaurant for an auto-parts sale arranged online, Letras said. Instead, he was robbed at gunpoint by Sandoval and three others.

“It sounds like that started the crime spree,” Letras said. Sandoval, the two minors and a fourth male who remains at large committed the Waterford robbery and then drove to Fresno County. All the suspects are believed to be Waterford residents and gang members, the sergeant said, though a gang enhancement has not yet been added to their charges.

In Stanislaus County, Sandoval faces charges including robbery, criminal conspiracy and being a felon in possession of a firearm. The teen arrested with him faces charges of robbery, conspiracy, receiving stolen property and using a firearm in commission of a felony. Information on the charges faced by the 16-year-old arrested Thursday was not immediately available.

The kidnapping and sexual assault case is being handled by authorities in Fresno County, where the crimes are reported to have occurred, Letras said.

This story was originally published July 13, 2018 at 12:45 PM with the headline "From a store bathroom, on a borrowed phone, woman reports she's been kidnapped, assaulted."