Some people are criminal masterminds, while some people have their crimes foiled by the promise of free pizza from someone more than 5,000 miles away. Virgil Henley is the latter.
Henley was on the lamb in Arizona with his four-year old daughter Yvette. However, custody of Yvette had been granted to her grandparents, Gary and Kim Forester, because of “emotional damage” inflicted upon Yvette by her father.
After Henley had taken Yvette and disappeared for three weeks without police being able to locate them, Gary and Kim decided to launch their own investigation.
“I battled every day with multiple local authorities who didn’t take me seriously,” explains Gary.
Gary and Kim asked all of Henley’s Facebook friends for help locating him. The only one of those Facebook friends to volunteer to help was Harry Brown, who lives more than 5,000 miles from Arizona in England.
Brown says he’s only met Henley online. They connected a few years ago because of a shared interest in online gaming. Brown spent a couple days conversing with Henley and finally got him to give up his location by offering to order a pizza and have it sent to his hotel room.
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After Brown convinced Henley to give up his location, the 21-year old Londoner was able to pass that information along to authorities in the U.S. Child protective services then showed up at Henley’s hotel to take custody of Yvette, who is now living with her grandparents in California. Meanwhile, Brown is an unlikely hero.
“I spend my life on the internet but little did I know that talking to random people would lead to me finding this little girl,” says Brown. “She is loving where she is now. I cried so much when I saw the photos of her with her grandparents.”
Gary and Kim could not be more grateful for the role a stranger from another country played in getting their granddaughter back safe and sound.
“Harry, all the way in London, England, was the only one who helped and found our Yvette,” said Gary. “Words can never express my gratitude for him.”