Two Sacramento-area teenagers are safe after possibly being lured into sex trafficking, thanks to the alert response of a ticket agent and an airport cop.

The 17-year-old and 15-year-old girls approached American Airlines ticket agent Denice Miracle. They had no identification and had reservations for a one-way trip to New York. It had been made on a fraudulent credit card.

Something is Wrong

Miracle felt something was wrong but didn’t turn the girls away. She called Todd Sanderson, sheriff’s deputy at the Sacramento International Airport. He later found the girls in the terminal by a Starbucks.

“They had told us they were talking to somebody on Instagram who was asking them to come back and take pictures, modeling pictures, and music videos,” Sanderson told Fox 40. That sent up red flags. He believed the girls were on their way to become sex trafficking victims. “That’s typically the ruse that’s being used to get minors and others involved to do that,” he added.

The girls didn’t believe him. They were shaken when they learned that their reservations were for one-way tickets. They reunited with their parents, who had no idea their children were leaving town.

“I fully believe [Miracle] probably prevented these girls from becoming victims,” said Sanderson.

American Airlines praised Miracle and said the ticket agent’s training saved the girls’ lives. In July, American Airlines announced that it would work with the nonprofit group End Child Prostitution and Trafficking USA to train the airline’s employees to look for signs of sex trafficking, reported The Dallas Morning News.