He saw her trapped in her own home, begging for help.
Joey Grundl, a Domino's pizza delivery driver in Waldo, Wisconsin, is being hailed as a hero for noticing a kidnapped woman's subtle cry for help.
Grundl was delivering a pizza to a woman's house when her ex-boyfriend, Dean Hoffman, opened the door. Looking over Hoffman's shoulder, Grundl saw a middle-aged woman with a black eye who seemed to be mouthing, "Call the police."
"I gave him his pizza, and then I noticed behind him was his girlfriend," Grundl told WITI Milwaukee. "She pointed to a black eye that was quite visible. She mouthed the words, 'Call the police.'"
When Grundl got back to his delivery car, he called 911 and conveyed what he saw to the operator. "I had a delivery. It was a middle-aged couple. The woman clearly had a black eye. She pointed to it, and I swear she mouthed 'help me,'" he told the operator. The cops but Hoffmann tried to block them from entering his home. He eventually gave in and let them in. The police proceeded to arrest him.
The woman later spoke to the press and said she believed he would have killed her that night. A neighbor Amy Hammarlund thanked the Grundl for intervening. "I'm grateful (the delivery driver) was paying attention, because it could have been a lot worse," said Hammarlund.
Earlier in the day, Hoffman arrived at the house without her permission and tried to convince her to get back into a relationship with him. He then punched her in the face and hog-tied her with a vacuum power cord.
"If you love me, you will let me go," she pleaded, but he reportedly replied, "You know I can't do that." He also threatened to shoot both of them with a .22 caliber firearm he kept in his car. The woman later told authorities that she feared for her life.
A day later, Grundl was seen on TV wearing a hoodie from Taylor Swift's "Reputation Tour" and her fans quickly jumped into action, tagging Swift in photos of the hero. Grundl already had tickets to go to an upcoming Swift concert in Arlington, Wisconsin, but when Swift learned of the story, she arranged to meet Grudl backstage.
"She knew who I was," Grundl jokingly tweeted after the concert. "I'm thoroughly convinced Taylor gave me a cold."
"This has been one of the most exciting weeks of my life," Grundl said. "I'm legitimately getting emotional and I almost never get like this. But as the likely most memorable week of my entire life comes to an end I guess I can really say I'm doing better than I ever was."
This article originally appeared on 08.19.19
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