(Reuters] – Kentucky’s 16-year-old girl, who used a TikTok-inspired hand gesture to warn motorists of her danger was saved by the Laurel County Sheriff’s Office on Monday.

    The signal, facing the palm outwards and closing the fingers around the tucked thumb, has been demonstrated by users and non-profit organizations on TikTok https://www.reuters.com/article/health-coronavirus-women-idINL8N2CW7GT as a way for a person being abused to tell someone they are in trouble without alerting the abuser.

    On Thursday, the girl was in the front passenger seat and made the signals from inside the car, a spokesperson for the Laurel County Sheriff’s Office said. The sign was recognized by a driver who called 9-1-1 to have officers dispatched to the scene.

    “That hand gesture was everything. That hand gesture was everything. If it hadn’t been…transmitted from the young woman, and if there wasn’t someone else out there who understood what she was saying, then who knows. The Deputy Gilbert Acciardo stated that we might not have been able to reach a resolution.

    “We think that motorists and law enforcement agencies nationwide should be aware of this and know what the signal means, and I think it can be quite useful in the future,” he said.

    James Herbert Brick, 61, was arrested and charged with unlawful imprisonment and possession of sexual material pertaining to a minor, Acciardo said. He said that the FBI was involved in this case and could be facing additional charges.

    The girl was taken to a hospital and then reunited with her family who live in Asheville, North Carolina.