Thanks to Green Dot training, Hurlburt serviceman helps save woman from potential kidnapper

By KELLY HUMPHREYPosted May 24, 2016 at 5:31 PM  Northwest Florida Daily News  HURLBURT FIELD — If you drive on or around Hurlburt Field, chances are you’ve seen some cars sporting a […]

By KELLY HUMPHREY
Posted May 24, 2016 at 5:31 PM  Northwest Florida Daily News 

HURLBURT FIELD — If you drive on or around Hurlburt Field, chances are you’ve seen some cars sporting a magnetic green dot.

The unusual accessory is designed to start a conversation. The goal is that the question “What’s with the green dot?” will lead to a discussion about Green Dot training.

The Air Force has contracted Green Dot, etc. to present the training, which gives students tools to intervene in a potentially violent situation.

For Tech Sgt. Jeremy Davey, the training, which he completed in early May, had almost immediate real-world applications.

Earlier this month, Davey and his wife, Svetlana, and their nearly 2-year-old daughter, Zoey, were enjoying a day at Navarre Beach.

“If you’ve ever been there, you know that to your right are the hotels and condos, and to the left there’s absolutely nothing,” Davey said. “I happened to look over to the left, and I saw something.”

The “something” was a young man who was propping up a young woman who was clearly having trouble walking.

“I thought to myself, ‘It’s probably nothing, but what if it’s something?’ ” Davey said. He gestured toward the pair and mentioned it to his wife.

“She looked at me and said, ‘Jeremy, you’re going to Green Dot, aren’t you?’ ” Davy recalled with a smile. “I told her, ‘I think I have to.’ ”

Davey decided to approach the man, who was walking the semi-conscious woman toward the parking lot.

“I asked him, ‘Excuse me, sir, is everything all right?’ ” Davey said.

The man assured him that the woman, who was his friend, simply had too much to drink, and he was going to take her home. Something still didn’t seem right to Davey, however, so he persisted. He asked the man what the woman’s name was.

“He started to stumble with his words, and he started to let her go and put her down on the ground,” Davey said. “At first, I was afraid he might be getting ready to fight me. But he just said, ‘I don’t have time for this,’ and walked away.”

While Davey tended to the woman, who was extremely inebriated, he noticed four other young women headed in his direction.

“When they came over to us, they were like, ‘Oh my God, Sandra, are you OK?’ ” Davey said.

It turns out that all five women were visiting Navarre from out of town. The young man whom Davey met had come up to the women at a bar and had walked away with Sandra.

While he doesn’t know for sure what might have happened if he hadn’t intervened, Davey suspects that the man might have abducted Sandra. He credits his Green Dot training with giving him the tools to get involved.

“The goal of the training is to change our culture from one of passive acceptance that violence is going to exist, to active intervention,” he said. “It doesn’t take one person doing one big thing to make a change. It’s many people doing many small things that will change the culture.”

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