A woman in Hickman County, Tennessee, was rescued after using a hand signal for help that went viral on TikTok early in the pandemic.
The woman, whose name was not disclosed, used the signal and mouthed the word"help" to a nearby shopper while in a convenience store, prompting a man, Eric Streeval, to have the clerk call 911, investigators told WKRN.
Streeval then took photos of the license plate of the truck in which the woman was seen. Local police chased the truck until it crashed. The woman was not injured in the crash. Jonathan Smith, reportedly the woman's ex-boyfriend, was arrested on charges of aggravated domestic assault and aggravated kidnapping.
The help signal was created by the Canadian Women's Foundation and approved by members of the deaf community, who said the sign did not mean something else in sign language. The purpose of the sign was to tell onlookers, discreetly, that help was needed, especially in the case of domestic abuse.The sign is created by facing the palm outward and placing the thumb on the palm of the hand while bringing the fingers over the thumb to"trap" it, according to the foundation.
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