You’ve heard the sayings “follow your instincts” and “trust your gut.” Well, those terms are in use for a very good reason. They are really accurate! Always follow your gut, even when you experience emotions that are difficult to explain. Something forces you to take action or refrain from taking action. It’s typically a wise choice to pay attention to that strong inner voice. Indeed, it could potentially save a life.

In 2015, one of the most compelling tales we’ve heard about following your gut occurred. Despite the fact that it happened a few years ago, this story affected millions of people and may have even saved the life of one girl. It is an excellent case for always listening to your intuition and acting on your instincts.

Four teenagers were spending a typical spring afternoon in Calgary, Canada, in 2015. In an underground parking garage at the Chinook Mall, Arnaud Nimenya, Carsyn Wright, James Hielema, and Starlyn Rives-Perez were skateboarding. The four teenagers saw an intoxicated female being carried by a bigger man there.

“She was screaming and yelling. And she just wanted to be out of there. She was all scuffed up and dirty,” said one of the skateboarders, Carsyn Wright. “The guy was dressed in very nice clothes, and the girl was all dirty, she was crying, her nose was bleeding.”

After talking among themselves, the four teenagers decided that something was wrong. One of the teenagers, unsure of how to handle the situation, asked the girl if she was alright. The man then attempted to explain that he was attempting to call the girl’s father. According to some sources, the man claimed to be the girl’s father. In any case, the teenagers didn’t fully trust him, but they were at a loss for what to do.

“We didn’t know what was going on at first and we didn’t know whether to trust the guy,” Starlyn Rives-Perez told Metro News.

“You don’t want to really think of the worst in somebody like that. You don’t want that situation to be real, so you just brush it off and hope for the best,” Wright followed.

What Followed earned them a prize

The youngsters said that what truly set off the bells in their heads was the following event that occurred. The young girl was led by the man to the parking garage’s stairs. After just a few minutes of walking away, the teenagers decided they needed to take action. The little girl was being sexually assaulted by the man when the four of them entered.

“He had her in a stairwell, bent over, and just, it was disgusting,” Wright said to CBC Canada.

Arnaud Nimenya was initially shocked. “You walk in, and you see something like that, and you freeze. You don’t know what to do.”

“He was trying to walk out and walk away from us,” said Nimenya. “He pushed me aggressively out of the way, kinda like just gives me the smile, like, ‘I can do this. You can’t do anything about it.’”

The four teenagers rushed in to halt the attack without considering the consequences. Wright stayed behind to assist the girl, while Nimenya, Hielema, and Rives-Perez followed the man.

“You can’t just leave a girl and like she was young, 15 years old. She needed help and we needed to be there for her,” Carsyn Wright told Global News.

Ultimately, the sexual attacker and three of the teenagers got into a violent altercation. He once seized a longboard belonging to one of the teenagers and used it as a weapon against them. But the three would not allow the predator to escape. They eventually overcame him and restrained him until the police showed up. The individual was later accused of sexual assault.

Wright told CBC, “Instinct took over I guess, I saw someone that needed help and I just did everything I could to help her.”

The Cheif’s Awards Gala takes place in Calgary, Canada every year. It’s where the “Calgary Police honor citizens who have made the city a better and safer place to live.” The four teens who stopped the sexual assault of that young girl were honored at the 2016 ceremony.

When police tried to contact one of the teens to inform them of the award, he was caught by surprise.

“We always thought we were going to be in trouble, because we fought with him. When they called us, we didn’t wanna answer,” Nimenya told CBC news.

“Calgary is a safe place to live but it doesn’t happen by itself, it’s safe because of the people that live here and the nature of wanting to help and wanting to look out for each other and that’s really a nice comment for such a big city,” Calgary Police Chief Roger Chaffin told 660 News.

Aren’t you happy that these courageous youths trusted their gut feelings and followed their instincts? Without a doubt, their presence makes the world a lot better place!