She hopped off of a flight, tired and ready for bed. After spending a few days out of the country for a friend’s wedding and then a camping trip with other friends, Leighanne was just ready to to check into her hotel and pass out. Earlier, her mother had called the hotel, one that conveniently connected to the airport that she had just flown into, and made reservations for the two friends in advance.
“I didn’t think much about it [the hotel],” Leighanne said. Leighanne L. is a 22-year-old student at a university in Pennsylvania. She majors in elementary education and has worked with Youth With A Mission during her time in college. Through that program, she has been educated on the issue of human trafficking and has a vast knowledge of the subject.
“If I wasn’t educated at all about the issue [human trafficking], I don’t think I would have been as aware during my experience,” Leighanne said.
As she and her friend entered the hotel, Leighanne noticed how dimly lit and eerily empty the hotel seemed. There were a few men behind the desk and she noticed a couple of slick business men occasionally walking through the lobby. She thought that was odd for a fancy hotel like this, but it was late and the hotel was an airport hotel. Even so, Leighanne felt something stir inside of her as she and her friend walked up to the concierge desk and asked to check in.
The men behind the desk were very friendly and asked personal questions about them. They seemed like they wanted them to stay at the desk, rather than head straight to their room. She noticed that a man, dressed in dark clothing and speaking in Spanish, had been staring intently at the two girls ever since they walked through the door. He was now on his phone, continuing to stare at them. From what little Spanish she could pick up, Leighanne thought she heard the man say something about liking the girls that just walked in. At that point, she felt very uneasy and “spiritually upset”. She and her friend finished checking in and got in the elevator to go to their room on the fifth floor, which Leighanne said felt odd as well because the hotel seemed very empty.
Around 12:30 a.m., as Leighanne and her friend were getting ready to go to bed, their hotel phone rang. Her friend picked it up and told Leighanne that one of the men at the desk said that their credit card did not go through and that there was a problem with the room situation. They told him no, they were not going to leave their room in the middle of the night and that they would take care of it in the morning. With that, they hung up on him and did not expect anymore trouble. But the phone kept ringing.
Leighanne decided that at this point, she should check in with her mom, who actually made the reservations, and double check to see whether or not everything had gone through. On the phone with her mom, she confirmed the information and told her mom what was going on with the man from the front desk. Her mom, immediately on alert, told Leighanne to call the police because she too felt that something really was not adding up. Leighanne did not know at the time, but both her mom and dad had not been able to sleep that night and had called the police themselves as soon as they got off of the phone with her.
“Nothing was making sense, nothing was adding up and that scared me,” Leighanne said. “At this point, nothing criminal had actually happened but the situation felt very odd.”
The police told Leighanne and her friend to lock the door and then lock themselves in the bathroom as well, because the operator agreed that something did not seem right. The police from the local district and the airport task force were on their way as the man from behind the desk started to loudly knock on the door, which shortly became banging and shouting. Locked in the bathroom, the girls could hear the man trying to get into the room with his master key. The only thing keeping him out was the deadbolt that they used before they went into the bathroom.
Fifteen to 20 minutes later, the girls heard the police shouting that they were going to come in. They entered and began to take statements and question the man, whose story changed a little every time. A few of the police payed more attention to the girls, while the others talked to the man. One of the policemen in particular seemed to want to convince the girls to stay the night at the hotel, which seemed odd to Leighanne, because he did not seem concerned at all. The girls decided to stay the night and the rest of the evening. Leighanne just wanted to put the events of the evening behind her and sleep, as it was two o’clock in the morning, but she found it odd that the police were not making a bigger deal about two girls who were scared of the man who was banging down their door.
The next morning, Leighanne and her friend woke up, packed up and headed to the lobby of the hotel. As they were exiting the elevator and checking out, Leighanne noticed a room with glass windows that she hadn’t before. As they walked by, she noticed the cop from the night before, dressed in a business suit and talking to the man that had come up to their room the night before. She couldn’t be sure but she knew that something was very unsettling about that. Leighanne walked out of that hotel and never looked back.
Reflecting on her experience, Leighanne said she tells her story all of the time. “Its important for people to know about about human trafficking because it is happening everywhere. I want to educate people about this issue because it can happen to anyone.” She said that even though she was scared during the experience she was reminded that God is bigger than our enemy’s plans. “My trust in God has increased even more.”, Leighanne said. She said that her family and community were shaken because of her experience but she believes that she had and lived through this for a reason.
Human trafficking is the third largest international crime industry behind illegal drugs and arms trafficking according to dosomething.org. The average age that children are trafficked is between the age of 12 to 14 in the US. Because of the staggering statistics connected with this topic Leighanne feels that its important to be observant of your surroundings and watch out for people who you believe are potentially in a compromising situations. “Plan things out more.” ,Leighanne advised. “Bringing one or two other guys also helps to lower your risk factor.” Leighanne believes that the more people talk about the issue and are aware and watching for signs of trafficking, the faster the issue will begin to improve.
