Three girlfriends stopped what may have been a potential rape in progress after witnessing a male companion slip something into a woman’s drink from a black vial in an upscale Santa Monica restaurant.
Monica Kenyon, Marla Saltzer, and Sonia Ulrich were at Fig at the Fairmont for happy hour when the disturbing incident occurred at a table nearby where a couple was sharing a bottle of wine.
“I was going on about something, and saw Monica staring behind (me) and making a funny face,” wrote Ulrich in a Facebook post May 27. “After a few seconds she said ‘That guy just put something in her drink.’”
“After a few ‘Oh god. What do we do’s, I got up to find her in the bathroom to…. Warn her. Tell her to get up and leave this creep. Make him drink it. Something,” reported Ulrich the following day.
In the bathroom Ulrich learned, after asking how well she knew him, that the man worked with her and was actually one of her “best friends.”
Meanwhile, Marla was talking to the server about what had happened, asking if he or the manager could do something, and Monica described what she saw:
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“He pulled her glass toward him, kind of awkwardly, then he took out a little black vial. He opened it up and dropped something in. Then he tried to play it cool, like checking his phone and hiding the vial in his hand and then trying to bring it back down slyly.”
“He apparently saw Monica looking,” says Ulrich. Marla said she was just going to comment, ‘That guy is acting really creepy,’ when she saw Monica already looking. “Witnessing.”
“It only took a minute for the manager to walk to their table, see if everything was ok, allowed the girl to order a sparkling water. All super cool. He stopped by our table and said he couldn’t do much because he didn’t see it.”
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But he did let security know, and they were already on the case, reviewing their surveillance camera.
“The poor woman had to sit through 40 more minutes, sitting across from ‘one of her best friends’ knowing that he was trying to drug her. Marla noticed him several times chinking his glass to hers to get her to drink.”
But, she played it cool and eventually, they finished up dinner.
The staff set up a clever ruse delaying them from paying their bill, saying ‘The computer is down.’
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Then, in walked the Santa Monica police. They said, “Come with us,” to which the man offered zero protest.
The head of security told the three girlfriends that because they were notified immediately, they were able to go back and review the footage from the security camera.
Apparently they saw him on the tapes and had proof of him attempting to drug the girl. They took away the glass as evidence–and the trio who believed the adage, ‘If you see something, say something,’ became instant heroes.
From every table nearby, and from throughout the restaurant, Ulrich says people came by to thank the women for taking action, and heard from “at least 10 stories of being personally affected.”
“It happened to my sister… It happened to my roommate at a producer’s party… It happened to me, at a backyard barbecue… It happened to me at a bar I worked at… Some heroes don’t wear capes. Thank you.”
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Ulrich ended her post this way: “Thank you in advance to everyone who sees this and shares this and reminds each other that yes, you SHOULD say something. Even if it’s awkward or weird or just uncertain if anything can be done.” You Saw It—Now Share It!
