Hall County

Car wash employees capture attempted kidnapper

HALL COUNTY, Ga. — Employees at a Gainesville car wash helped capture an attempted kidnapper and carjacker last week.

A woman was vacuuming out her car at Xtreme Clean Auto Spa on Friday when police said, Eric Timothy Davidson, 27, jumped into the driver’s seat while the victim's child was in the back. %

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Police said when Davidson tried to run away, car wash employees Landrell Payne and Melvin Hall tackled him to the ground.

“Landrell said, ‘Take him down.’ So I grabbed him around the collar and I took him down,” Hall said.

Payne said he didn’t have to think twice about jumping into action.

“I have children as well, so when I saw the child, I was automatically thinking, ‘I don’t think this is going to go down here. Let’s stop this guy. He’s not going anywhere.’”

Hall and Payne are being called heroes, but they said the praise shouldn’t go to them.

“It was nothing by anything I did. It was a blessing of God. I just happened to be at the right place at the right time to stand in for him. That’s it,” Hall said.

According to police, Davidson’s crime spree began next door with an attempted robbery in a Walmart parking lot.

He faces a number of charges, including carjacking and kidnapping.