TULSA, Okla. — Taylor Nettelton moved to Tulsa two years ago for cancer treatment. She has stage-four cancer and chemotherapy is difficult because a portion of the cancer is close to her brain.
Nettelton says medical bills are high and her car is the only thing that keeps her from being homeless because it gets her back and forth to work.
On March 7, Nettelton took her car to a car wash near 31st and Garnett Road. Nettelton says the car wash was crowded because the weather was warm.
Her sunny day quickly turned dark and gloomy. While she was vacuuming her car, a man claiming to be an employee told her that her time was up on the vacuum.
“I was trying to move out of his way. He offered to close the truck and I said 'Oh, don’t worry about it,'” Nettelton said.
As Nettelton was backing out as instructed, she says the man made his way into her car from the passenger side.
Nettelton says she was not sure if he was armed, but she was horrified.
“He kept his hands in his hoodie and he had plenty of space. He just said he didn’t want to hurt me, and he wouldn’t if I helped him. It was very much an implied threat,” said Nettelton.
Nettelton says the man demanded she take him to a drive up ATM, but she convinced him to go to the Walmart next to the car wash.
Nettelton said, “I just wanted to get out of the car and within public view of anybody.”
Unfortunately that didn't work and the man stayed close and followed her into Walmart.
"He stayed right behind me. So I definitely felt someone was over my shoulder ready to grab me," Nettleton said.
She says he tried to force her to the ATM just inside the door, but she told him she had to use the bathroom, thinking she would get away.
Nettelton said, "He gave me a time limit, even followed me to the bathroom and then kept trying to come in when no one was in there shouting at me."
Nettelton says she could not call 911 because she dropped her phone in water earlier. Finally she says she saw her chance to get away when a woman came into the batroom.
"I said could you go out and get some kind of security. This guy forced his way into my car and is demanding money and I’m very frightened,” Nettelton said.
Hear more of Nettelton's horrifying ordeal, who police have in custody and the message she has for the stranger she says saved her life, tonight at 5 p.m. on KJRH.
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