A teenager knew she had to jump out of her moving pickup truck after a man armed with a box cutter forced her to drive.
Alisha Campbell stopped at the Love's Travel Center in White House on Highway 76 before noon on Monday when the culprit got into her passenger seat and threatened her.
"I thought he just wanted money and was going to go but then he said 'drive or else I’m going to kill you'" Campbell said. "I started driving and he said to lock my doors and roll up the window, so I rolled it up and pretended to lock my doors."
The 18-year-old said she remained calm and complied with his orders to drive on the interstate although he never specified where they were going.
She recalled driving under the normal speed limit to avoid suspicion.
"As soon as I started to get on the on-ramp, he put the knife back into the door and I immediately jumped out. I don’t even remember getting out of the car but I remember looking back and he tried to grab my arm which ripped my jacket," Campbell remembered.
Police said the man then got in the driver seat and drove on I-65 southbound towards Nashville.
A woman stopped to help her as they flagged down an officer driving near the entrance ramp.
White House Police Chief Pat Brady said Campbell did what she needed to do to get out of danger.
"For her to be able to come up with a plan of action and execute that plan, it possibly could've saved her life," Brady said. "Many things could've gone wrong but she absolutely did the right thing."
Police eventually found her blue Ford F-150 about two hours northwest in Henderson, Kentucky.
Investigators have not obtained any surveillance videos that captured the incident.
The man is described to be a thin white male approximately 5'11 with grey, balding hair wearing blue jeans and a white T-shirt.
Campbell stated she is lucky to be alive and even showed the road rash to her arms to NewsChannel 5.
"It was my first instinct was to get out of the situation. It was like a movie. It was crazy and was really intense," Campbell added.
