Man delivering pizza to motel room senses danger—his 911 call minutes later rescued two young girls

Trigger warning: This story contains themes of child and sexual abuse that some readers may find distressing.

A Papa John’s pizza deliveryman, Mark Buede, was commended by the Lexington Police Department for being vigilant and saving two lives, per The Lexington Herald Leader. The man was delivering pizza with his daughter, Faith. He went up to a motel alone to make the delivery while his daughter waited in the car. When the man opened the door, the observant Mark sensed danger. He acted on his instincts and moments later, dialed 911. His alert helped save two young girls who were in trouble. Faith had received a pizza order from a man and was riding with her dad to deliver it at night. The man went up and knocked on the motel door.

A report from NBC stated that the man’s name was Justin Elam, a 36-year-old. He opened the door to take the delivery and in that moment, Mark noticed something doubtful and unusual. He saw a little girl on the bed who reportedly had “no clothes on.” Mark didn’t intervene right away but as he made his way down to his car, something kept pestering him from within. He went and shared the information with his daughter and the duo decided to call 911. “I didn’t know what was going on. I just knew it wasn’t right,” the delivery man noted. The father-daughter duo didn’t know what happened after they placed the call.

The Lexington police officers took note of the situation and promptly responded. “After knocking on the door to the room, they heard a 'scream’ from a young girl,” the police department said in an account of the event. When they entered, they found two young girls under the age of 12 hiding behind the bed, naked. The police further inspected the situation and the investigation revealed that the man had been abusing his daughters. Officers William Phillips, Zakary Ridener and Corey Sutton worked on the case immediately and charged the man with multiple counts of rape and sexual abuse.

The officers and Mark were awarded for their brave and prompt action when it came to rescuing the minors. The deliveryman received a public service medal for his effort. It was only at the award program that he read about the case and he learned how important and life-saving his 911 call was. “I knew that something happened because they called me a couple of times to ask some questions,” Mark recalled. However, he wasn’t too sure what the situation was. Nevertheless, being a father of a girl himself, he knew well the importance of speaking up. “I’ve got kids. I’m going to protect kids if I can,” the delivery man remarked.

The Lexington Police Department shared a tweet about the 911 call from the father-daughter duo and added in a thread how imperative it was. "The department is incredibly grateful and proud of the people who work every day to keep Lexington safe!" the tweet read. A spokesperson from Papa John’s commended the employee for his outstanding effort. "We are so thankful for team members like Mark Buede — he chose to take action and it made a difference. We are proud to have him in the Papa John's family,” the spokesperson said.

If you know of any children who are being subjected to abuse, please contact The Childhelp National Child Abuse Hotline at (800) 422-4453