Several girls ages 11 to 14 years old managed to escape being kidnapped by fighting back against their assaulter. Allison and Lauren Eickhoff were leaving a gas station in Millington, Michigan last week when a man grabbed one of the girls by the hair and attempted to kidnap her.
Officers with the Millington Police Department said the suspect, identified as 22-year-old Bruce Hipkins, followed the girls last Friday night and then grabbed one them “around the head and told her she was coming with him.”
Police indicate that the girls fought back and threw hot coffee on the man.
“The other three girls kicked, hit, and threw their hot coffee on him,” the department said in a statement Saturday. “The suspect let the young girl go and grabbed another one of the girls by her hair. The suspect was again kicked and hit by the girls until he let her go and fled on foot.”
Two of the girls, sisters Allison, 11, and Lauren Eickhoff, 13, described the scary ordeal in an interview with an ABC affiliate on Monday.
“He said, ‘You’re coming with me.’ And like, he grabbed my face,” Allison added. “This cannot be happening; I thought it was a test at first, but then I’m like, ‘This is real.’”
Lauren said that she screamed and then remembered that her father said they should fight back whenever they felt like they were in danger.
“I grabbed my drink and chucked it at his head. I tried, I punched him in the head,” Lauren said. “Seeing that your little sister was going to get taken is very scary.”
The girls escaped to a nearby hotel and called for help. There were no injuries reported.
Officers eventually caught up with Hipkins and arrested him on charges of unlawful imprisonment, assault and battery and two counts of criminal sexual conduct, police said.
Hipkins is being held at the Tuscola County Jail on a $250,000 bond.