These heroic women just managed to stop a date rape

It’s not every day that a story begins with a man drugging a woman's drink and ends well.

But that’s what happened on Friday when three women at a restaurant happy hour in California this weekend noticed that a man had spiked his date's drink while she went to the toilet.

Sonia Ulrich, Marla Selzer and Monica Kenyon relayed the extraordinary turn of events on Facebook:

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.

Sonia went to the toilets after the woman to tell her what they had seen.

I approached. 'Hey! Um, this is kind of weird, but, uh, we saw the guy you were with put something in your drink.'

'Oh My God.' She said. Shocked, kind of numb, so I babbled 'Yeah, my girlfriend said she saw him put something in your drink and we had to say something. Woman to woman... you know. We had to say something. How well do you know that guy?' I was expecting to hear 'We just met,' but I got:

'He's one of my best friends.'

It turns out the woman had known the man in question - who Santa Monica police department has confirmed is now in jail on a $1 million bail - for a year and a half. In fact, they even worked together.

Rather than leave, she made her way back to the table, as the three witnesses let the server know what was going on.

The manager walked over to the table to make sure Marla was safe, and told the security guard what had happened.

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. She played it cool. Mostly, I believed, just stunned.

Eventually, they finished up dinner. There was a delay getting their bill "The computer is down" is what the waiter kept saying to him. Then, in walks Santa Monica PD. They say 'Come with us' and he doesn't protest. Doesn't ask why. Doesn't seem surprised.

A review of the CCTV footage confirmed that he put an unknown substance covertly into her drink, and the glasses of wine were taken in for evidence testing.

Ulrich said that she wanted as many people to read and share what happened as possible - because people watching out for each other keeps us all safer.

Rapists are rarely strangers, and approximately 90 per cent of rape victims know the perpetrator.

So thank you, everyone at Fig and Fairmont in Santa Monica for keeping this guy from harming someone.

And 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.

H/T: Jezebel

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