In 2023 the National Human Trafficking Hotline received 30,162 signals. 7.380 were from victims or survivors of human trafficking.
God had other plans for me on Saturday August 24th 2024 than what I had. I was staying in a hotel in downtown San Diego's Little Italy. I had just attended my first West Coast Summit. They asked me co-host one of their roundtables that Friday. The last time I had spoken in public was a Tuesday night Awana's children's biblestudy. I was one of the leaders for the 5 to 8 year olds. For my roundtable there was only one person who asked a question, and Component Control gave her the wrong answer. They said it couldn't be done. After a few minutes she asked again. They said they could do it but it was an advanced process and it would be expensive. I stalled as I saw my time was ending early. She asked again if there was a way to do it. I said run the command line utility that converts your database dump into SQL text. Edit the text file and remove all SQL statements releated to what you want to remove. I think I did okay for an introvert getting in front of 30+ stranges. I answered the ladies question with a totally different solution than Component Control. In the end she got two valid answers. One is to pay Component Control to do it. The other is to utlize her staff.
Back to Victoria and God's new calling in my life. It was 4 am and I took the trolly to Hazard Central and ate breakfast at Denny's. I walked over to Target and meet Victoria. She was pushing a locked cart around the parking lot. She had a couple of jugs of water and was looking for recycling to cash in on. I approcahed her and asked "Need anything from Target?" thinking she would decline as most homeless don't trust outsiders. She cocked her head and said "Sure". We spent about 6 hours in Target picking out various things. The Target has two levels. I've never seen a Target this big. I realized that she was physically 29. She had told me she was kicked out of her home by her parents when she was 16 and that was 13 years ago. That she has been homeless living in San Diego. However, her mental age was exactly like my 15 year old daughter. I'm not sure how that is possible, but she was not 29 years old maturity wise. She shopped at Target like my daughter instead of like my wife.
After Target I took her to T-Mobile and added a tablet to my account and gave it to her. I realized the shopping cart was overflowing and once she left Target it would lock up again. I asked if she wanted to stay in my hotel while my family and I went to LEGOLAND. She could take a shower, dye her hair, do up her nailes, and relax. Head over to the hotel resturant and put it on my room. She agreed and we headed off in an Uber. Once we got underway she asked the driver to take us by Bloomingdales. He refused. I updated my Uber ride and inserted Bloomingdales as a stop. We got there and she directed him to a Electrify America / Tesla Supercharging parking lot. She nerviously asked me to come and meet her friend (really her owner but I was naive). The driver refused to wait 5 minutes as he had accepted his next ride. I got her stuff out of the Uber and said my goodbyes.
We started texting each other and then it changed. It wasn't her on the other end but someone else. It must have been her "friend" pretending to be her. I stopped by the parking lot on with my family on our way to LEGOLAND. I didn't know where she was, but there was an overpass so I headed that direction and found her encampment. I gave her the blueberries, strawberries, and pizza. Her 'friend' wouldn't come near me. He stuck his head out of the tent. He had a syringe over his ear where I've seen people put cigarettes. He ducked back into the tent and a flury of motion was going on that I couldn't see. I grabbed her hand and prayed for her. I appolgised I didn't have time to meet her friend. I went back to the parking lot with a broken heart. Jumped in my car and finally got underway to LEGOLAND.
While at LEGOLAND I felt like ants were crawling all over my body. I was in line for a ride. I used Apple Maps to find the San Deigo Police Department. I called the number and the dispather eventually offered to do a wellness check on Victoria. I called back the next day. They couldn't find her and had given up on the wellness check. I asked if there were any county, state, or federal agencies that assist rescuing victims of human trafficking. After a brief hold of 15+ minutes, she came back and suggested I contact their Vice Operations.
The San Diego Police Department's Vice Operations didn't answer their phone. I called for 4 hours on Monday. It would ring, transfer and rign, then hang up. I Googled them and found an email address. They have yet to reply.
Then after sharing my story with the owner of the company I work at now. They suggested I figure out a better way to rescue Victoria. I registered this domain, got an 800 number, and here I am.