What was supposed to be a simple errand to help people find Christmas toys turns into a brutal attack and the potential kidnapping of a Temecula woman just days before Christmas.
The bizarre episode began Dec. 18 when Temecula resident Erin Quinn received a text message asking her to pick up toys for a Christmas toy drive.
That Wednesday morning, Quinn received a text message from an unknown number in the 213 area code claiming to be from an older woman named Connie, KTLA 5 reported.
Through a text message, Quinn was told to meet the alleged toy donor at a home on Memory Lane in an unincorporated area of Perris known as Winchester.
When Quinn arrived at the house, she got out of her car and went to the front door, leaving the door unlocked, but no one answered, ABC 7 reported. She received another text message from the same number saying she was waiting in her car and an elderly woman’s caregiver would bring the gift outside.
“Fully ready [there were no presents] And when I got back to my car, I had no idea that there was someone waiting for me,” said Quinn, who created a petition created by a friend to raise money for medical and mental health expenses, in addition to repairing her damaged car. he wrote on the GoFundMe page. car. Mr. Quinn did not respond to the Times’ request for comment by press time.
According to reports, shortly after Quinn returned to the driver’s seat, she was attacked from the back seat by an unidentified woman wearing a blonde wig.
Quinn said her hair was pulled, her head was taped multiple times and she was forced to drive.
During the approximately 30-minute assault, Quinn told KTLA that the assailant threatened to target the children and their mother.
Quinn kicked his attacker in self-defense and bit off part of his finger in a “complete panic”. “I didn’t know what else to do,” Quinn wrote on her GoFundMe account.
Quinn said she tried to get help by getting the attention of those around her.
“Several construction workers in the area witnessed and videotaped what was happening, but did nothing,” she wrote.
At one point, Quinn crashed into two cars and, while struggling with her attacker, ripped off her wig and identified her as her former housekeeper, Olga Mendez, ABC reported.
Olga Mendez, 44, of Menifee, is the suspect in the Dec. 18 kidnapping and assault.
(Riverside County Sheriff)
Bystanders eventually intervened and pulled Mendez away from Quinn, but Mendez fled the scene. The Riverside County Sheriff’s Office said in a news release that deputies initially investigated the incident as a domestic dispute, but quickly learned it was an attempted kidnapping and assault. Responding sheriff’s deputies transported Quinn to a local hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.
Quinn told ABC that she and Mendes broke up on good terms about four years ago.
“I strongly believe that her plan was to kidnap me and take me to Mexico for ransom or sale,” she said on the GoFundMe page.
Authorities located and arrested 44-year-old Mendez in Paramount 10 days after the assault.
Mendez was booked into the Coisbad Detention Center on charges of kidnapping, assault with a deadly weapon, criminal threats and two unrelated warrants, according to the Riverside County Sheriff’s Office.
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