(Memphis) Charles Hester is charged with trying to kidnap a 74-year-old woman.
Police say they got a tip the attempted kidnapper was at the McDonald’s at Summer and White Station.
When police arrived Thursday, they arrested Hester as he was getting into a white car.
“I can’t get over how everybody came together,” said the victim, who lives in East Memphis.
Once his picture hit TV, it didn’t take long to get Hester in handcuffs.
Just two days after the woman says Hester tried to kidnap her at Kroger, “I just remember the bluest eyes I ever saw and him just staring at me. I just scared me.”
The 74-year-old wants to remain anonymous out of fear but explained the man asked for a ride to Nashville and when she said no he tried to make her, “He said ‘I have a gun. Get in your car.’ With that I screamed and ran towards Kroger. I just ducked down and went between the cars because I figured if he is not a good shot, he is not going to get me.”
The man made a run for it, but a witness followed him to Poplar near Mendenhall and asked the man if he could take his picture, “He said ‘if you are guilty, you’ll run. If not, you’ll let me take your picture’ and he stood there and he really took a picture!”
That clear, face-forward shot got blasted on television Wednesday getting people from all over to call-in with tips, “I think putting it on television is the secret.”
Crimes Stoppers says at least seven people called them, two of whom knew Charles Hester by name.
The victim says the biggest tip police got was from Hester himself, who basically posed for his own mug shot.
“That’s what you call a dumb criminal,” she said.
