It happened in Johnston County as a woman was locked in the trunk of car going down the interstate.Around 4 a.m. Saturday, January 14, Johnston County 911 Shift Supervisor Tim Medlin got a 911 cell phone call from a woman who said she'd been kidnapped from Raleigh and put in the trunk of a car which was traveling down the highway.At that point, the car was headed east on I-40 nearing the I-95 interchange. "She was crying and very upset, so it was hard to understand her at first, but [Medlin] finally heard her say she was locked in a trunk of a car," Barbour explained. "The only thing we knew is it was a female that was very upset, and that she was in the trunk of the car," he said. They've confirmed that they've got them. Medlin "refused to give up" and used the office's emergency cellphone in an attempt to reach the woman, according to Barbour. "It was this flip phone, and [Medlin] texted the woman on that phone since he couldn't reach her by calling," Barbour said. He decided to use it to text the woman who called.She responded, told them she knew the man driving, and were likely headed to Fayetteville. "Fortunately, she started texting back and told us that she needed help and that she believed she was in a red Mustang headed towards Fayetteville." Once they had a location, Fayetteville police spotted the car, rescued the woman and arrested Mattevi. The 29-year-old woman called 911 around 4 a.m. on Jan. 14, 2017, saying she had a disagreement with her boyfriend, who forced her into a trunk, Jason Barbour, director of the Johnston County Emergency 911 Communications Center, said. He added that her boyfriend, 32-year-old Nicholas Mattevi, was arrested around 5 a.m. and charged with false imprisonment, a misdemeanor.
– A North Carolina woman allegedly locked in the trunk of a moving car by her boyfriend was saved by a quick-thinking 911 dispatcher and a lowly flip phone, ABC News reports. The 29-year-old woman called 911 around 4am Jan. 14. The woman had gotten in a fight with her boyfriend, who was "jealous," according to WRAL. Before dispatcher Tim Medlin could get much information from the woman, the call was dropped. He was unable to get her to answer when he called back. Then Medlin remembered a flip phone the 911 communications center keeps around in case the phone lines go down, WTVD reports. He says texting was the only way he could think to contact her without getting "her in trouble." The woman texted Medlin back, letting the dispatcher know she was in a red Mustang headed toward Fayetteville. Verizon provided the location of the woman's phone, and police stopped her and her boyfriend, Nicholas Mattevi, in Fayetteville. Mattevi, 32, was arrested and charged with false imprisonment. "I can go to bed," Medlin recalls feeling upon hearing of the arrest. "We've done our job." He says he's planning to buy a smartphone for the office to replace the old flip phone and make it easier to text if there's a next time. Medlin's boss tells ABC the dispatcher "really stood by our motto: Failure is not an option." (This 911 dispatcher was accused of hanging up on callers.)