What began as an errand to the neighborhood store turned into a harrowing and life-threatening ordeal for a 36-year-old Chicago woman.
For safety’s sake, police have not identified her but she is alive today only because of the intuition of a complete stranger.
Antoine Dobine, 53, was walking along 119th and Egglestone when his ears picked up a strange sound.
Intrigued, he cautiously approached a home in the Pullman neighborhood. That’s when he clearly heard the distressing sounds of a woman screaming.
“As I get closer: ‘Help!’ Bam, bam, bam! I said, ‘Who is that?’ ‘Help!’ That’s when I called police.”
The brick home from which Dobine heard the woman’s frightened pleas for help is one of half a dozen homes on the block that are abandoned.
The lots are overgrown and garbage can be seen scattered around. In fact, the home that housed the crying woman had been left empty for more than 30 years.
As soon as police arrived at the abandoned home, they charged in and found the woman chained in an upstairs bedroom.
The woman told police she had been abducted while shopping at her neighborhood store and later raped after she’d been dragged to the vacant property.
Police shared that the woman had met the man previously. He’s reportedly in his 60s.
“I ended up bumping into him and he was like, ‘you know, come here for a minute.’”
When he grabbed her, she tried to fight him off but couldn’t. Once he dragged her to the vacant home, he assaulted her twice and left her handcuffed and chained up by her ankles.
Dobine, also known as D-Ice, streamed his discovery of the woman on Facebook live. He’s a community activist with Hands Around the Hundreds.
The woman was taken to the hospital for medical treatment where she profusely thanked Dobine for coming to her rescue.
“He could have ignored me but he heard me and he helped me. I’m just blessed. I’m truly blessed.”
“I believe he will strike again, I just want him caught.”
West Pullman resident Louis Walton-Muhammed is grateful the woman was rescued and hopes the incident will prompt leaders to take care of the abandoned properties.
“Let’s open the abandoned homes. Let’s walk through the homes. Let’s do a search. Let’s lock it back up and make sure everything is OK.”
In the meantime, Dobine has started a fundraiser on Spotfund to help generate money to provide permanent housing for the victim and to build a shelter to help women escape abuse and sexual assault through his nonprofit.
Dobine also hopes to convert the abandoned properties into housing for the homeless, those returning to everyday life after serving a jail sentence or other situations.
“Returning citizens from incarceration need a place to stay. Our mental health people need a place to stay to get back on their feet.”
Thank goodness Dobine heard the woman’s faint cries for help and didn’t ignore them.
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