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It started out like any other Uber transaction. Keith Avila, a photographer who also drives for the ridesharing company, picked up two women and a girl at a home in Sacramento, California. As they got into the car, Avila noticed the girl looked young. *snip* “I was 100 percent sure I knew what was happening,” Avila tells PEOPLE. “It wasn’t 99.999 percent. It was 100 percent. And I knew I had to do something, but I didn’t know exactly how I was going to do it. I wondered if I should take pictures with my phone.”

After walking 26 miles in the snow along a desolate stretch of the Grand Canyon over 36 hours, a Las Vegas woman is now safe and recovering from exposure at a Utah hospital. Karen Klein was enjoying a holiday vacation with her husband and 10-year-old son when their car got stuck in the mud near the North Rim of the Grand Canyon in Arizona late last week. Klein said she'd decided to be the one to go get help because her husband had recently been in an accident. Outdoorsy and athletic, she thought she could brave the elements herself. "I...

Police in rural Louisiana say a Walmart employee found a baby girl in a bathroom a few hours after the infant’s mother gave birth to her and dumped her in a trash can. The infant was only about 4 hours old when an employee at a Walmart Supercenter in the city of New Roads in Pointe Coupee Parish found her just after 7 p.m. on Friday, Lt. Shael Stringer of the New Roads Police Department told The Washington Post. The mother, Kyandrea Thomas, a woman in her 30s, was found shortly after. Stringer said a Walmart employee saw Thomas in...

Authorities say a toddler found nearly naked in a rainy California park was protected by a pack of dogs. A Victorville police sergeant called to Brentwood Park found the 2-year-old in the rain Wednesday morning. He was wearing only a dirty diaper and was surrounded by seven dogs. Police say they seemed protective of the boy. During their investigation, police said a dog tried to bite a sergeant and was shot. The dog is recovering.

REDDING, Calif. -- The husband of a Northern California woman found bound along the side of a road three weeks after vanishing says the woman was “branded,” burned, had “chain marks” and her hair cut off and weighed only 87 pounds after her rescue. Keith Papini said in a statement released to Good Morning America that investigators told him to “brace himself” before he was re-united with his wife at a hospital Thanksgiving Day because of her battered condition. Investigators say Sherri Papini, 34, was abducted Nov. 2 after going for a jog near Redding. Her husband told Good Morning...

A passerby carrying a concealed weapon shot and killed a criminal suspect who was attacking a sheriff’s deputy in Estero, Fla. Deputy Dean Bardes was pursuing a fleeing suspect in a 100 mph car chase down Interstate 75 when the suspect abruptly stopped, exited his car, and attacked Bardes after he did the same, acording to local WINK News. The suspect, whom the deputy says was armed, got the better of Bardes, who began crying for help. “The officer opened his door, and the guy got out and ran out and grabbed the officer out of his car and started...

Blow, whose name is Kurtis Walker, had collapsed at a bus stop near the Westfield Topanga mall at about 9 p.m. last Saturday night, according to police. ... A mall security guard had seen a younger man yelling at an older man at a bus stop Saturday night, so the initial 911 call described the incident as a robbery. When LAPD officers arrived, they determined there was no robbery happening, but an argument between the 57-year-old man and his son, who is his twenties. As Officers Chris Vege and Calvin Hill, Jr., walked up to the group, the older man...

Her name is Denise Scott. She was attacked by Hillary supporters Friday while guarding Donald Trump's star on the Hollywood Walk of fame. Thousands helped scour the city for her after Donald Trump's attorney ask for help finding her. She seems to be doing OK and Trump's team is on their way to help her. "The police arrest him today. She is being helped. Enough said," said Michael Delauzon, who posted a photograph of her. "Mr Trump is already helping her. His attorney is coordinating everything. She will be very happy."

While driving in Arizona between campaign stops on Thursday, Donald Trump's son managed to help a driver stuck in the middle of the road after her car stalled. Donald Trump Jr, the Republican presidential candidate's oldest son, was captured on video pushing an Impala off a busy street in Mesa alongside two other men. The group then called for help and gave the unidentified woman water so she did not get dehydrated in the 100-degree heat, according to The Arizona Republic.

A nine-year old cheerleader stood alone at a football game as the fathers of her squadmates lifted their daughters onto their shoulders. Addie Rodriguez was alone because her father Abel is undergoing military training in California. “It was truly unfortunate to see your daughter standing out there being the only one without their father, knowing why he’s away. It’s not just an absentee parent. He’s serving our country,” Addie’s mom Alexis Perry-Rodriguez said. Enter San Antonio teenager Matthew Garcia. And what an entrance. Seeing Addie’s situation, Matthew — a senior at Central Catholic High School — vaulted two fences as...

My sister's neighbor, her "adopted daughter", if you will, is trying to raise money to go from Brooklyn to Montreal with a van to rescue as many pit bulls as she can before they are put down this Monday under a new law. My sister is driving up there. (I'd be going, too, if I weren't allergic!) Please consider donating, and spreading the word on other sites you use.

SACRAMENTO — Californians who see an animal trapped in a hot car can now break a window to set them free without fear of prosecution under a bill signed over the weekend by Gov. Jerry Brown. Rescuers can break into the car as long as there is no other way to free the animal, for instance if the animal appears to be in peril, the car is locked and law enforcement is not arriving quickly enough. The rescuer must stay at the scene until law enforcement respond to the situation. The bill was introduced after a series of incidents in...

Gov. Jerry Brown on Saturday signed into law a measure allowing Californians to break into vehicles to rescue animals if they appear to be in danger from excessive heat. **SNIP** Under AB 797, a citizen must first call law enforcement to report a situation in which he or she believes an animal to be in peril. But if the animal is in imminent danger, the car is locked, and law enforcement is not arriving quickly enough to save the animal’s life, the bill provides immunity from civil and criminal liability to a person causing vehicle damage for the purpose of...

The story of Chesley 'Sully' Sullenberger could’ve been fodder for a predictable inspirational film that ends with the main character climatically saving 155 lives (including his own) onboard a disabled plane. But director Clint Eastwood isn’t known for taking that route. As a director, he’s known for asking larger questions and he’s done so in movies likeFlags of our Fathers(2006) and the controversialAmerican Sniper(2014). He’s continued that route withSully, a feature that daringly presents the Captain as an introspective man who faced off againsthis critics after his incredible act of heroism.Tom Hanks stars as the title character, a pilot who faced...

The Coast Guard was searching Wednesday for an upstate New York woman who plunged into the water from a Carnival cruise ship off the coast of Grand Bahama Island. The passenger "was witnessed jumping overboard" from the 11th deck of the Carnival Ecstasy around 2:30 a.m. ET, Carnival Cruise Line spokeswoman Jennifer de la Cruz said in a statement."

A news cameraman in Louisiana is being hailed a hero after pulling a pregnant woman out of her burning car after crashing on the side of the road. The 21-year-old female driver, who is seven-months pregnant, became trapped in her car Tuesday after running off the road and hitting a tree in Baton Rouge . WBRZ photographer Patrick Perry and News 2 reporter Brittany Weiss were following behind the woman on their way to an unrelated news story when they saw the burning wreck. ... 'I started hearing a voice - a very soft voice - saying ''I'm over here,...

ACCUMOLI, Italy (Reuters) - A powerful earthquake devastated a string of mountainous towns in central Italy on Wednesday, trapping residents under piles of rubble, killing at least 38 people and leaving thousands homeless.The quake struck in the early hours of the morning when most residents were asleep, razing homes and buckling roads in a cluster of communities some 140 km (85 miles) east of Rome.A family of four, including two boys aged 8 months and 9 years, were buried when their house in Accumoli imploded. As rescue workers carried away the body of the infant, carefully covered by a small...

BALTIMORE, MD (KTRK) -- Firefighters say a dog gave his life protecting an 8-month-old from a fire late Sunday. The girl is alive today thanks to an act of heroism and a heart-breaking loss for her family. Erika Poremski, the child's mother, said she had quickly stepped out to her car when she turned around to find the house in flames and her daughter Viviana inside. "I just heard her crying and I couldn't get to her," Poremski said. "I tried really hard, everyone in the neighborhood tried. They were kicking the doors in and kicking the windows out. I...

Hundreds of passengers on board a packed ferry are being forced to abandon ship after a blaze broke out on board. US Coastguards raced to the scene after receiving reports that a huge fire caught hold of a massive ship carrying more than 500 people. A number of people are feared to be in the water - according to the Coastguard - but it is not yet known if any are injured. Lifeboats According to reports, the vessel is a passenger ferry that caught fire just a mile outside San Juan bay in Puerto Rico. The US Coastguard revealed it...

When Officer Steve Dunham met the 7-year-old, the boy was offering to sell his teddy bear.The little guy must have seemed industrious, standing in front of the CVS at the busy intersection of Second and Main in Franklin, Ohio, trying to hawk his toy on July 7. Most children don’t want to part with their stuffed animals. In this boy’s case, it was a lone source of comfort, but he was desperate.He hadn’t eaten in days.Perhaps if he sold the small bear for enough money, he could walk across the street and get a kid’s meal at Subway. At the...