Fasting for as little as three days can regenerate
the entire immune system, even in the elderly,
scientists have found in a breakthrough described
as "remarkable".
Although fasting diets have been criticised by
nutritionists for being unhealthy, new research
suggests starving the body kick-starts stem cells
into producing new white blood cells, which fight
off infection.
Scientists at the University of Southern California
say the discovery could be particularly beneficial
for people suffering from damaged immune
systems, such as cancer patients on
chemotherapy.
It could also help the elderly whose immune
system becomes less effective as they age, making
it harder for them to fight off even common
diseases.
The researchers say fasting "flips a regenerative
switch" which prompts stem cells to create brand
new white blood cells, essentially regenerating the
entire immune system.
Related Articles
Bosses should allow staff afternoon naps at work
to boost productivity, scientists say 05 Jun 2014
Sleeping with light on increases risk of obesity 30
May 2014
Watching pornography damages men's brains 29
May 2014
"It gives the 'OK' for stem cells to go ahead and
begin proliferating and rebuild the entire system,"
said Prof Valter Longo, Professor of Gerontology
and the Biological Sciences at the University of
California.
"And the good news is that the body got rid of the
parts of the system that might be damaged or old,
the inefficient parts, during the fasting.
“Now, if you start with a system heavily damaged
by chemotherapy or ageing, fasting cycles can
generate, literally, a new immune system."
Prolonged fasting forces the body to use stores of
glucose and fat but also breaks down a significant
portion of white blood cells.
During each cycle of fasting, this depletion of white
blood cells induces changes that trigger stem cell-
based regeneration of new immune system cells.
In trials humans were asked to regularly fast for
between two and four days over a six-month
period.
Scientists found that prolonged fasting also
reduced the enzyme PKA, which is linked to ageing
and a hormone which increases cancer risk and
tumour growth.
"We could not predict that prolonged fasting would
have such a remarkable effect in promoting stem
cell-based regeneration of the hematopoietic
system," added Prof Longo.
"When you starve, the system tries to save energy,
and one of the things it can do to save energy is to
recycle a lot of the immune cells that are not
needed, especially those that may be damaged," Dr
Longo said.
"What we started noticing in both our human work
and animal work is that the white blood cell count
goes down with prolonged fasting. Then when you
re-feed, the blood cells come back. So we started
thinking, well, where does it come from?"
Fasting for 72 hours also protected cancer patients
against the toxic impact of chemotherapy.
"While chemotherapy saves lives, it causes
significant collateral damage to the immune
system. The results of this study suggest that
fasting may mitigate some of the harmful effects of
chemotherapy," said co-author Tanya Dorff,
assistant professor of clinical medicine at the USC
Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center and Hospital.
"More clinical studies are needed, and any such
dietary intervention should be undertaken only
under the guidance of a physician.”
"We are investigating the possibility that these
effects are applicable to many different systems
and organs, not just the immune system," added
Prof Longo.
However, some British experts were sceptical of the
research.
Dr Graham Rook, emeritus professor of
immunology at University College London, said the
study sounded "improbable".
Chris Mason, Professor of Regenerative Medicine at
UCL, said: “There is some interesting data here. It
sees that fasting reduces the number and size of
cells and then re-feeding at 72 hours saw a
rebound.
“That could be potentially useful because that is
not such a long time that it would be terribly
harmful to someone with cancer.
“But I think the most sensible way forward would
be to synthesize this effect with drugs. I am not
sure fasting is the best idea. People are better
eating on a regular basis.”
Dr Longo added: “There is no evidence at all that
fasting would be dangerous while there is strong
evidence that it is beneficial.
“I have received emails from hundreds of cancer
patients who have combined chemo with fasting,
many with the assistance of the oncologists.
“Thus far the great majority have reported doing
very well and only a few have reported some side
effects including fainting and a temporary increase
in liver markers. Clearly we need to finish the
clinical trials, but it looks very promising
Thursday, February 12, 2015
Fasting for at least 3 days can regenerate your entire immune system
Fasting for as little as three days can regenerate
the entire immune system, even in the elderly,
scientists have found in a breakthrough described
as "remarkable".
Although fasting diets have been criticised by
nutritionists for being unhealthy, new research
suggests starving the body kick-starts stem cells
into producing new white blood cells, which fight
off infection.
Scientists at the University of Southern California
say the discovery could be particularly beneficial
for people suffering from damaged immune
systems, such as cancer patients on
chemotherapy.
It could also help the elderly whose immune
system becomes less effective as they age, making
it harder for them to fight off even common
diseases.
The researchers say fasting "flips a regenerative
switch" which prompts stem cells to create brand
new white blood cells, essentially regenerating the
entire immune system.
Related Articles
Bosses should allow staff afternoon naps at work
to boost productivity, scientists say 05 Jun 2014
Sleeping with light on increases risk of obesity 30
May 2014
Watching pornography damages men's brains 29
May 2014
"It gives the 'OK' for stem cells to go ahead and
begin proliferating and rebuild the entire system,"
said Prof Valter Longo, Professor of Gerontology
and the Biological Sciences at the University of
California.
"And the good news is that the body got rid of the
parts of the system that might be damaged or old,
the inefficient parts, during the fasting.
“Now, if you start with a system heavily damaged
by chemotherapy or ageing, fasting cycles can
generate, literally, a new immune system."
Prolonged fasting forces the body to use stores of
glucose and fat but also breaks down a significant
portion of white blood cells.
During each cycle of fasting, this depletion of white
blood cells induces changes that trigger stem cell-
based regeneration of new immune system cells.
In trials humans were asked to regularly fast for
between two and four days over a six-month
period.
Scientists found that prolonged fasting also
reduced the enzyme PKA, which is linked to ageing
and a hormone which increases cancer risk and
tumour growth.
"We could not predict that prolonged fasting would
have such a remarkable effect in promoting stem
cell-based regeneration of the hematopoietic
system," added Prof Longo.
"When you starve, the system tries to save energy,
and one of the things it can do to save energy is to
recycle a lot of the immune cells that are not
needed, especially those that may be damaged," Dr
Longo said.
"What we started noticing in both our human work
and animal work is that the white blood cell count
goes down with prolonged fasting. Then when you
re-feed, the blood cells come back. So we started
thinking, well, where does it come from?"
Fasting for 72 hours also protected cancer patients
against the toxic impact of chemotherapy.
"While chemotherapy saves lives, it causes
significant collateral damage to the immune
system. The results of this study suggest that
fasting may mitigate some of the harmful effects of
chemotherapy," said co-author Tanya Dorff,
assistant professor of clinical medicine at the USC
Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center and Hospital.
"More clinical studies are needed, and any such
dietary intervention should be undertaken only
under the guidance of a physician.”
"We are investigating the possibility that these
effects are applicable to many different systems
and organs, not just the immune system," added
Prof Longo.
However, some British experts were sceptical of the
research.
Dr Graham Rook, emeritus professor of
immunology at University College London, said the
study sounded "improbable".
Chris Mason, Professor of Regenerative Medicine at
UCL, said: “There is some interesting data here. It
sees that fasting reduces the number and size of
cells and then re-feeding at 72 hours saw a
rebound.
“That could be potentially useful because that is
not such a long time that it would be terribly
harmful to someone with cancer.
“But I think the most sensible way forward would
be to synthesize this effect with drugs. I am not
sure fasting is the best idea. People are better
eating on a regular basis.”
Dr Longo added: “There is no evidence at all that
fasting would be dangerous while there is strong
evidence that it is beneficial.
“I have received emails from hundreds of cancer
patients who have combined chemo with fasting,
many with the assistance of the oncologists.
“Thus far the great majority have reported doing
very well and only a few have reported some side
effects including fainting and a temporary increase
in liver markers. Clearly we need to finish the
clinical trials, but it looks very promising
the entire immune system, even in the elderly,
scientists have found in a breakthrough described
as "remarkable".
Although fasting diets have been criticised by
nutritionists for being unhealthy, new research
suggests starving the body kick-starts stem cells
into producing new white blood cells, which fight
off infection.
Scientists at the University of Southern California
say the discovery could be particularly beneficial
for people suffering from damaged immune
systems, such as cancer patients on
chemotherapy.
It could also help the elderly whose immune
system becomes less effective as they age, making
it harder for them to fight off even common
diseases.
The researchers say fasting "flips a regenerative
switch" which prompts stem cells to create brand
new white blood cells, essentially regenerating the
entire immune system.
Related Articles
Bosses should allow staff afternoon naps at work
to boost productivity, scientists say 05 Jun 2014
Sleeping with light on increases risk of obesity 30
May 2014
Watching pornography damages men's brains 29
May 2014
"It gives the 'OK' for stem cells to go ahead and
begin proliferating and rebuild the entire system,"
said Prof Valter Longo, Professor of Gerontology
and the Biological Sciences at the University of
California.
"And the good news is that the body got rid of the
parts of the system that might be damaged or old,
the inefficient parts, during the fasting.
“Now, if you start with a system heavily damaged
by chemotherapy or ageing, fasting cycles can
generate, literally, a new immune system."
Prolonged fasting forces the body to use stores of
glucose and fat but also breaks down a significant
portion of white blood cells.
During each cycle of fasting, this depletion of white
blood cells induces changes that trigger stem cell-
based regeneration of new immune system cells.
In trials humans were asked to regularly fast for
between two and four days over a six-month
period.
Scientists found that prolonged fasting also
reduced the enzyme PKA, which is linked to ageing
and a hormone which increases cancer risk and
tumour growth.
"We could not predict that prolonged fasting would
have such a remarkable effect in promoting stem
cell-based regeneration of the hematopoietic
system," added Prof Longo.
"When you starve, the system tries to save energy,
and one of the things it can do to save energy is to
recycle a lot of the immune cells that are not
needed, especially those that may be damaged," Dr
Longo said.
"What we started noticing in both our human work
and animal work is that the white blood cell count
goes down with prolonged fasting. Then when you
re-feed, the blood cells come back. So we started
thinking, well, where does it come from?"
Fasting for 72 hours also protected cancer patients
against the toxic impact of chemotherapy.
"While chemotherapy saves lives, it causes
significant collateral damage to the immune
system. The results of this study suggest that
fasting may mitigate some of the harmful effects of
chemotherapy," said co-author Tanya Dorff,
assistant professor of clinical medicine at the USC
Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center and Hospital.
"More clinical studies are needed, and any such
dietary intervention should be undertaken only
under the guidance of a physician.”
"We are investigating the possibility that these
effects are applicable to many different systems
and organs, not just the immune system," added
Prof Longo.
However, some British experts were sceptical of the
research.
Dr Graham Rook, emeritus professor of
immunology at University College London, said the
study sounded "improbable".
Chris Mason, Professor of Regenerative Medicine at
UCL, said: “There is some interesting data here. It
sees that fasting reduces the number and size of
cells and then re-feeding at 72 hours saw a
rebound.
“That could be potentially useful because that is
not such a long time that it would be terribly
harmful to someone with cancer.
“But I think the most sensible way forward would
be to synthesize this effect with drugs. I am not
sure fasting is the best idea. People are better
eating on a regular basis.”
Dr Longo added: “There is no evidence at all that
fasting would be dangerous while there is strong
evidence that it is beneficial.
“I have received emails from hundreds of cancer
patients who have combined chemo with fasting,
many with the assistance of the oncologists.
“Thus far the great majority have reported doing
very well and only a few have reported some side
effects including fainting and a temporary increase
in liver markers. Clearly we need to finish the
clinical trials, but it looks very promising
Wednesday, February 11, 2015
Dad's dilemma
Dad's Dilemma: Twin Daughters
Both Needed Liver Transplant
The father of twin girls both in need of liver
transplants donated a portion of his liver to one of
the girls today.
Michael Wagner underwent surgery to remove a
portion of his liver that will then be used by
doctors to help save the life of one of his
daughters, Phuoc Wagner, 3.
Wagner's wife Johanne Wagner updated family and
friends on Facebook today, reporting that her
husband's liver was deemed good for transplant.
Wagner's twin girls Binh and Phuoc have a genetic
condition called Alagille syndrome, which can
cause liver damage. They both needed a liver
transplant to survive, but Wagner could only give
his liver to one child. Johanne Wagner told ABC
News in an earlier interview that doctors would
decide which of their daughters would receive the
liver based on their medical condition.
The two surgeries were expected to take 18 to 22
hours, according to a statement from the Hospital
for Sick Children, in Toronto, Canada.
In the hospital statement, the Wagner family
confirmed they were still searching for a donor
liver for Binh.
The twins were adopted in from Vietnam in 2012
by the Wagners, who were aware the girls’ livers
were in trouble during the adoption. The couple
also have seven other children.
“We knew they were very ill,” Johanne Wagner
said of the girls when they were first adopted.
“Those girls knocked on our doors and they were
supposed to be with us and it just took a different
path. As soon as we heard about them, we knew
they were they were part of our family.”
Last year, the girls’ condition worsened to the
point that they were put on a transplant list. While
the girls each need their own donor, the family
was delighted to find out that Michael Wagner was
a donor match.
Wagner could only donate tissue to one child
because of the way the liver regenerates.
“We found ourselves to be very lucky that we
qualified right away,” Johanne Wagner said of her
husband being a match. “[We’re] relieved but we
need one more donor.”
PHOTO: Binh and Phuoc.
The family has now turned to social media and
public outreach in the hope that a stranger could
be a match. On her website, Johanne Wagner said
the hospital had received over 280 submissions
from people offering to be a donor for Binh.
"Hopefully those courageous people who have
submitted their applications will elect to leave their
name there in order to help save others who are
on the list waiting for a liver, and are just as
important as my daughters," she wrote. "I hope
this media campaign is giving hope to the many
who are suffering in silence."
PHOTO: The father of Binh and Phuoc can only
donate to one child. The family is trying to find
another donor.
Wagner is directing anyone interested in becoming
a potential donor to the Toronto General Hospital
Living Donor Assessment Office to see if they fit
the profile.
Both Needed Liver Transplant
The father of twin girls both in need of liver
transplants donated a portion of his liver to one of
the girls today.
Michael Wagner underwent surgery to remove a
portion of his liver that will then be used by
doctors to help save the life of one of his
daughters, Phuoc Wagner, 3.
Wagner's wife Johanne Wagner updated family and
friends on Facebook today, reporting that her
husband's liver was deemed good for transplant.
Wagner's twin girls Binh and Phuoc have a genetic
condition called Alagille syndrome, which can
cause liver damage. They both needed a liver
transplant to survive, but Wagner could only give
his liver to one child. Johanne Wagner told ABC
News in an earlier interview that doctors would
decide which of their daughters would receive the
liver based on their medical condition.
The two surgeries were expected to take 18 to 22
hours, according to a statement from the Hospital
for Sick Children, in Toronto, Canada.
In the hospital statement, the Wagner family
confirmed they were still searching for a donor
liver for Binh.
The twins were adopted in from Vietnam in 2012
by the Wagners, who were aware the girls’ livers
were in trouble during the adoption. The couple
also have seven other children.
“We knew they were very ill,” Johanne Wagner
said of the girls when they were first adopted.
“Those girls knocked on our doors and they were
supposed to be with us and it just took a different
path. As soon as we heard about them, we knew
they were they were part of our family.”
Last year, the girls’ condition worsened to the
point that they were put on a transplant list. While
the girls each need their own donor, the family
was delighted to find out that Michael Wagner was
a donor match.
Wagner could only donate tissue to one child
because of the way the liver regenerates.
“We found ourselves to be very lucky that we
qualified right away,” Johanne Wagner said of her
husband being a match. “[We’re] relieved but we
need one more donor.”
PHOTO: Binh and Phuoc.
The family has now turned to social media and
public outreach in the hope that a stranger could
be a match. On her website, Johanne Wagner said
the hospital had received over 280 submissions
from people offering to be a donor for Binh.
"Hopefully those courageous people who have
submitted their applications will elect to leave their
name there in order to help save others who are
on the list waiting for a liver, and are just as
important as my daughters," she wrote. "I hope
this media campaign is giving hope to the many
who are suffering in silence."
PHOTO: The father of Binh and Phuoc can only
donate to one child. The family is trying to find
another donor.
Wagner is directing anyone interested in becoming
a potential donor to the Toronto General Hospital
Living Donor Assessment Office to see if they fit
the profile.
Tuesday, February 10, 2015
BRAVE
Hero Bakery Owner Gets Sweet
Rewards
The lines at Mini’s Cupcakes in Salt Lake City have
been out the door since last Thursday because the
store’s owner, Leslie Fiet , is being hailed as a
hero.
Fiet, 44, was in her bakery's kitchen prepping
Valentine’s Day treats on Feb. 4, when, at around
5 p.m., she saw an Amber Alert flash on her
cellphone.
Fiet, a mother of two sons, said the alert caught
her eye because it indicated the child in danger
was in a black SUV. Fiet remembered seeing black
SUV parked outside her shop and assumed it was
a customer at the framing store next door.
“After I got the message I looked out my door and
saw the SUV but there was no license plate on the
front,” Fiet, who opened Mini's in 2007, told ABC
News. "I went to the other side and saw the
license plate and thought, ‘Oh my hell.’”
Sitting inside the black SUV was the focus of the
Amber Alert, 3-year-old Bella Martinez. Bella had
been left sleeping inside the car by her father,
Pedro Martinez, around 3 p.m., that day while he
went into a convenience store located about 25
blocks away from the cupcake shop, according to
police.
A woman who approached Martinez for a cigarette
at the convenience store got inside his car and
drove off with Bella as soon as Martinez was
inside the store, Salt Lake South Police
Department executive officer Gary Keller told ABC
News.
Fiet said when she saw Bella inside the car
through an open window, she knew she had to
act.
“My initial thought was to call 911 but then I
looked closer and saw Bella was in a tremendous
amount of stress, hyperventilating and crying," Fiet
said. "I just dropped my phone and ran out the
door.”
PHOTO: Cupcake store owner Leslie Fiet is being
hailed as a hero after rescuing 3-year-old Bella
Martinez.
“My thought was just to get her out of the car,”
she said. “As I’m diving through the open window
I thought, ‘Please don’t shoot me,’ and then I
thought, ‘Well if they drive off I’ll be hanging out
the window and someone will call 911.’”
Luckily for Fiet and Bella, the suspect, identified by
police as 24-year-old Rosealee Maria Key, had
already abandoned the SUV.
In a span of what Fiet estimates to be about 30
seconds, she got Bella out of the SUV and safely
inside the cupcake shop. Fiet locked the door, only
allowing a customer she knew, who was also a
nurse, in to help her.
While the customer called 911, Fiet says she read
Bella books and gave her a stuffed animal to hold
on to.
“I thought about giving her a cupcake but with so
many allergies now –- gluten free, dairy free -- I
didn’t dare give her any food,” Fiet said.
When a plain-clothed police officer happened to
walk by, Fiet let him in, but only after verifying his
badge number with the 911 operator.
“He was calling out the number through the
window,” she said.
Nearly 45 minutes later, Bella’s parents arrived at
Fiet’s store, accompanied by the police chief and
their extended family, who had all been out
searching for Bella on their own.
PHOTO: Cupcake store owner Leslie Fiet is being
hailed a hero after rescuing 3-year-old Bella
Martinez. Mini's Cupcakes, pictured here in a
photo posted to Instagram on Jan. 16, 2015, was
recently burglarized.
“It was a whole lot of thank you’s and hugs,” Fiet
said of the meeting. “I don’t think you can even
talk at that point.”
“The relief of knowing your child is safe and that
nothing has happened to her, what else can you
say? You’re just in tears,” she said.
Fiat went home around 8:30 that night and came
back to her bakery early the next morning,
thinking it would be a normal work day.
“I’m getting lines and lines and I can’t bake and
frost fast enough and I’m like, ‘What is going
on?,’” Fiet said. “Then someone said, ‘They said
what you did on the radio and said to come down
and support you.”
So many people came to support Fiet's shop that
some of her friends took the day off from their own
jobs to help her man the crowds. On Thursday
night, a local talk radio show broadcast live from
Mini's Cupcakes, keeping the store open well past
its usual 6 p.m. closing time.
In addition to the new customers, flowers, cards
and thank you notes have been pouring in from
complete strangers, according to Fiet.
“People are saying hero which makes me
uncomfortable because I don’t feel that way,” she
said. “I think of a hero as a firefighter running into
a building. I think I have more of an attitude that
I’m grateful to have been in a position to be there
for Bella..”
One gift that Fiet has not removed from herself is
the one given to her by Bella’s father when he and
Bella’s family returned to Mini’s Cupcakes on
Friday to say thank you again.
“Bella’s parents gave me a beautiful charm
necklace with the date of her abduction and angel
wings,” Fiet said. “Her dad put it on me and I
haven’t taken it off.”
The suspect in the case turned herself into
authorities on Feb. 4. She was arrested by police
and charged with unauthorized use of a vehicle
and child endangerment, authorities told ABC
News.
Rewards
The lines at Mini’s Cupcakes in Salt Lake City have
been out the door since last Thursday because the
store’s owner, Leslie Fiet , is being hailed as a
hero.
Fiet, 44, was in her bakery's kitchen prepping
Valentine’s Day treats on Feb. 4, when, at around
5 p.m., she saw an Amber Alert flash on her
cellphone.
Fiet, a mother of two sons, said the alert caught
her eye because it indicated the child in danger
was in a black SUV. Fiet remembered seeing black
SUV parked outside her shop and assumed it was
a customer at the framing store next door.
“After I got the message I looked out my door and
saw the SUV but there was no license plate on the
front,” Fiet, who opened Mini's in 2007, told ABC
News. "I went to the other side and saw the
license plate and thought, ‘Oh my hell.’”
Sitting inside the black SUV was the focus of the
Amber Alert, 3-year-old Bella Martinez. Bella had
been left sleeping inside the car by her father,
Pedro Martinez, around 3 p.m., that day while he
went into a convenience store located about 25
blocks away from the cupcake shop, according to
police.
A woman who approached Martinez for a cigarette
at the convenience store got inside his car and
drove off with Bella as soon as Martinez was
inside the store, Salt Lake South Police
Department executive officer Gary Keller told ABC
News.
Fiet said when she saw Bella inside the car
through an open window, she knew she had to
act.
“My initial thought was to call 911 but then I
looked closer and saw Bella was in a tremendous
amount of stress, hyperventilating and crying," Fiet
said. "I just dropped my phone and ran out the
door.”
PHOTO: Cupcake store owner Leslie Fiet is being
hailed as a hero after rescuing 3-year-old Bella
Martinez.
“My thought was just to get her out of the car,”
she said. “As I’m diving through the open window
I thought, ‘Please don’t shoot me,’ and then I
thought, ‘Well if they drive off I’ll be hanging out
the window and someone will call 911.’”
Luckily for Fiet and Bella, the suspect, identified by
police as 24-year-old Rosealee Maria Key, had
already abandoned the SUV.
In a span of what Fiet estimates to be about 30
seconds, she got Bella out of the SUV and safely
inside the cupcake shop. Fiet locked the door, only
allowing a customer she knew, who was also a
nurse, in to help her.
While the customer called 911, Fiet says she read
Bella books and gave her a stuffed animal to hold
on to.
“I thought about giving her a cupcake but with so
many allergies now –- gluten free, dairy free -- I
didn’t dare give her any food,” Fiet said.
When a plain-clothed police officer happened to
walk by, Fiet let him in, but only after verifying his
badge number with the 911 operator.
“He was calling out the number through the
window,” she said.
Nearly 45 minutes later, Bella’s parents arrived at
Fiet’s store, accompanied by the police chief and
their extended family, who had all been out
searching for Bella on their own.
PHOTO: Cupcake store owner Leslie Fiet is being
hailed a hero after rescuing 3-year-old Bella
Martinez. Mini's Cupcakes, pictured here in a
photo posted to Instagram on Jan. 16, 2015, was
recently burglarized.
“It was a whole lot of thank you’s and hugs,” Fiet
said of the meeting. “I don’t think you can even
talk at that point.”
“The relief of knowing your child is safe and that
nothing has happened to her, what else can you
say? You’re just in tears,” she said.
Fiat went home around 8:30 that night and came
back to her bakery early the next morning,
thinking it would be a normal work day.
“I’m getting lines and lines and I can’t bake and
frost fast enough and I’m like, ‘What is going
on?,’” Fiet said. “Then someone said, ‘They said
what you did on the radio and said to come down
and support you.”
So many people came to support Fiet's shop that
some of her friends took the day off from their own
jobs to help her man the crowds. On Thursday
night, a local talk radio show broadcast live from
Mini's Cupcakes, keeping the store open well past
its usual 6 p.m. closing time.
In addition to the new customers, flowers, cards
and thank you notes have been pouring in from
complete strangers, according to Fiet.
“People are saying hero which makes me
uncomfortable because I don’t feel that way,” she
said. “I think of a hero as a firefighter running into
a building. I think I have more of an attitude that
I’m grateful to have been in a position to be there
for Bella..”
One gift that Fiet has not removed from herself is
the one given to her by Bella’s father when he and
Bella’s family returned to Mini’s Cupcakes on
Friday to say thank you again.
“Bella’s parents gave me a beautiful charm
necklace with the date of her abduction and angel
wings,” Fiet said. “Her dad put it on me and I
haven’t taken it off.”
The suspect in the case turned herself into
authorities on Feb. 4. She was arrested by police
and charged with unauthorized use of a vehicle
and child endangerment, authorities told ABC
News.
Brave
Hero Bakery Owner Gets Sweet
Rewards
The lines at Mini’s Cupcakes in Salt Lake City have
been out the door since last Thursday because the
store’s owner, Leslie Fiet , is being hailed as a
hero.
Fiet, 44, was in her bakery's kitchen prepping
Valentine’s Day treats on Feb. 4, when, at around
5 p.m., she saw an Amber Alert flash on her
cellphone.
Fiet, a mother of two sons, said the alert caught
her eye because it indicated the child in danger
was in a black SUV. Fiet remembered seeing black
SUV parked outside her shop and assumed it was
a customer at the framing store next door.
“After I got the message I looked out my door and
saw the SUV but there was no license plate on the
front,” Fiet, who opened Mini's in 2007, told ABC
News. "I went to the other side and saw the
license plate and thought, ‘Oh my hell.’”
Sitting inside the black SUV was the focus of the
Amber Alert, 3-year-old Bella Martinez. Bella had
been left sleeping inside the car by her father,
Pedro Martinez, around 3 p.m., that day while he
went into a convenience store located about 25
blocks away from the cupcake shop, according to
police.
A woman who approached Martinez for a cigarette
at the convenience store got inside his car and
drove off with Bella as soon as Martinez was
inside the store, Salt Lake South Police
Department executive officer Gary Keller told ABC
News.
Fiet said when she saw Bella inside the car
through an open window, she knew she had to
act.
“My initial thought was to call 911 but then I
looked closer and saw Bella was in a tremendous
amount of stress, hyperventilating and crying," Fiet
said. "I just dropped my phone and ran out the
door.”
PHOTO: Cupcake store owner Leslie Fiet is being
hailed as a hero after rescuing 3-year-old Bella
Martinez.
“My thought was just to get her out of the car,”
she said. “As I’m diving through the open window
I thought, ‘Please don’t shoot me,’ and then I
thought, ‘Well if they drive off I’ll be hanging out
the window and someone will call 911.’”
Luckily for Fiet and Bella, the suspect, identified by
police as 24-year-old Rosealee Maria Key, had
already abandoned the SUV.
In a span of what Fiet estimates to be about 30
seconds, she got Bella out of the SUV and safely
inside the cupcake shop. Fiet locked the door, only
allowing a customer she knew, who was also a
nurse, in to help her.
While the customer called 911, Fiet says she read
Bella books and gave her a stuffed animal to hold
on to.
“I thought about giving her a cupcake but with so
many allergies now –- gluten free, dairy free -- I
didn’t dare give her any food,” Fiet said.
When a plain-clothed police officer happened to
walk by, Fiet let him in, but only after verifying his
badge number with the 911 operator.
“He was calling out the number through the
window,” she said.
Nearly 45 minutes later, Bella’s parents arrived at
Fiet’s store, accompanied by the police chief and
their extended family, who had all been out
searching for Bella on their own.
PHOTO: Cupcake store owner Leslie Fiet is being
hailed a hero after rescuing 3-year-old Bella
Martinez. Mini's Cupcakes, pictured here in a
photo posted to Instagram on Jan. 16, 2015, was
recently burglarized.
“It was a whole lot of thank you’s and hugs,” Fiet
said of the meeting. “I don’t think you can even
talk at that point.”
“The relief of knowing your child is safe and that
nothing has happened to her, what else can you
say? You’re just in tears,” she said.
Fiat went home around 8:30 that night and came
back to her bakery early the next morning,
thinking it would be a normal work day.
“I’m getting lines and lines and I can’t bake and
frost fast enough and I’m like, ‘What is going
on?,’” Fiet said. “Then someone said, ‘They said
what you did on the radio and said to come down
and support you.”
So many people came to support Fiet's shop that
some of her friends took the day off from their own
jobs to help her man the crowds. On Thursday
night, a local talk radio show broadcast live from
Mini's Cupcakes, keeping the store open well past
its usual 6 p.m. closing time.
In addition to the new customers, flowers, cards
and thank you notes have been pouring in from
complete strangers, according to Fiet.
“People are saying hero which makes me
uncomfortable because I don’t feel that way,” she
said. “I think of a hero as a firefighter running into
a building. I think I have more of an attitude that
I’m grateful to have been in a position to be there
for Bella..”
One gift that Fiet has not removed from herself is
the one given to her by Bella’s father when he and
Bella’s family returned to Mini’s Cupcakes on
Friday to say thank you again.
“Bella’s parents gave me a beautiful charm
necklace with the date of her abduction and angel
wings,” Fiet said. “Her dad put it on me and I
haven’t taken it off.”
The suspect in the case turned herself into
authorities on Feb. 4. She was arrested by police
and charged with unauthorized use of a vehicle
and child endangerment, authorities told ABC
News.
Rewards
The lines at Mini’s Cupcakes in Salt Lake City have
been out the door since last Thursday because the
store’s owner, Leslie Fiet , is being hailed as a
hero.
Fiet, 44, was in her bakery's kitchen prepping
Valentine’s Day treats on Feb. 4, when, at around
5 p.m., she saw an Amber Alert flash on her
cellphone.
Fiet, a mother of two sons, said the alert caught
her eye because it indicated the child in danger
was in a black SUV. Fiet remembered seeing black
SUV parked outside her shop and assumed it was
a customer at the framing store next door.
“After I got the message I looked out my door and
saw the SUV but there was no license plate on the
front,” Fiet, who opened Mini's in 2007, told ABC
News. "I went to the other side and saw the
license plate and thought, ‘Oh my hell.’”
Sitting inside the black SUV was the focus of the
Amber Alert, 3-year-old Bella Martinez. Bella had
been left sleeping inside the car by her father,
Pedro Martinez, around 3 p.m., that day while he
went into a convenience store located about 25
blocks away from the cupcake shop, according to
police.
A woman who approached Martinez for a cigarette
at the convenience store got inside his car and
drove off with Bella as soon as Martinez was
inside the store, Salt Lake South Police
Department executive officer Gary Keller told ABC
News.
Fiet said when she saw Bella inside the car
through an open window, she knew she had to
act.
“My initial thought was to call 911 but then I
looked closer and saw Bella was in a tremendous
amount of stress, hyperventilating and crying," Fiet
said. "I just dropped my phone and ran out the
door.”
PHOTO: Cupcake store owner Leslie Fiet is being
hailed as a hero after rescuing 3-year-old Bella
Martinez.
“My thought was just to get her out of the car,”
she said. “As I’m diving through the open window
I thought, ‘Please don’t shoot me,’ and then I
thought, ‘Well if they drive off I’ll be hanging out
the window and someone will call 911.’”
Luckily for Fiet and Bella, the suspect, identified by
police as 24-year-old Rosealee Maria Key, had
already abandoned the SUV.
In a span of what Fiet estimates to be about 30
seconds, she got Bella out of the SUV and safely
inside the cupcake shop. Fiet locked the door, only
allowing a customer she knew, who was also a
nurse, in to help her.
While the customer called 911, Fiet says she read
Bella books and gave her a stuffed animal to hold
on to.
“I thought about giving her a cupcake but with so
many allergies now –- gluten free, dairy free -- I
didn’t dare give her any food,” Fiet said.
When a plain-clothed police officer happened to
walk by, Fiet let him in, but only after verifying his
badge number with the 911 operator.
“He was calling out the number through the
window,” she said.
Nearly 45 minutes later, Bella’s parents arrived at
Fiet’s store, accompanied by the police chief and
their extended family, who had all been out
searching for Bella on their own.
PHOTO: Cupcake store owner Leslie Fiet is being
hailed a hero after rescuing 3-year-old Bella
Martinez. Mini's Cupcakes, pictured here in a
photo posted to Instagram on Jan. 16, 2015, was
recently burglarized.
“It was a whole lot of thank you’s and hugs,” Fiet
said of the meeting. “I don’t think you can even
talk at that point.”
“The relief of knowing your child is safe and that
nothing has happened to her, what else can you
say? You’re just in tears,” she said.
Fiat went home around 8:30 that night and came
back to her bakery early the next morning,
thinking it would be a normal work day.
“I’m getting lines and lines and I can’t bake and
frost fast enough and I’m like, ‘What is going
on?,’” Fiet said. “Then someone said, ‘They said
what you did on the radio and said to come down
and support you.”
So many people came to support Fiet's shop that
some of her friends took the day off from their own
jobs to help her man the crowds. On Thursday
night, a local talk radio show broadcast live from
Mini's Cupcakes, keeping the store open well past
its usual 6 p.m. closing time.
In addition to the new customers, flowers, cards
and thank you notes have been pouring in from
complete strangers, according to Fiet.
“People are saying hero which makes me
uncomfortable because I don’t feel that way,” she
said. “I think of a hero as a firefighter running into
a building. I think I have more of an attitude that
I’m grateful to have been in a position to be there
for Bella..”
One gift that Fiet has not removed from herself is
the one given to her by Bella’s father when he and
Bella’s family returned to Mini’s Cupcakes on
Friday to say thank you again.
“Bella’s parents gave me a beautiful charm
necklace with the date of her abduction and angel
wings,” Fiet said. “Her dad put it on me and I
haven’t taken it off.”
The suspect in the case turned herself into
authorities on Feb. 4. She was arrested by police
and charged with unauthorized use of a vehicle
and child endangerment, authorities told ABC
News.
Brave
Hero Bakery Owner Gets Sweet
Rewards
The lines at Mini’s Cupcakes in Salt Lake City have
been out the door since last Thursday because the
store’s owner, Leslie Fiet , is being hailed as a
hero.
Fiet, 44, was in her bakery's kitchen prepping
Valentine’s Day treats on Feb. 4, when, at around
5 p.m., she saw an Amber Alert flash on her
cellphone.
Fiet, a mother of two sons, said the alert caught
her eye because it indicated the child in danger
was in a black SUV. Fiet remembered seeing black
SUV parked outside her shop and assumed it was
a customer at the framing store next door.
“After I got the message I looked out my door and
saw the SUV but there was no license plate on the
front,” Fiet, who opened Mini's in 2007, told ABC
News. "I went to the other side and saw the
license plate and thought, ‘Oh my hell.’”
Sitting inside the black SUV was the focus of the
Amber Alert, 3-year-old Bella Martinez. Bella had
been left sleeping inside the car by her father,
Pedro Martinez, around 3 p.m., that day while he
went into a convenience store located about 25
blocks away from the cupcake shop, according to
police.
A woman who approached Martinez for a cigarette
at the convenience store got inside his car and
drove off with Bella as soon as Martinez was
inside the store, Salt Lake South Police
Department executive officer Gary Keller told ABC
News.
Fiet said when she saw Bella inside the car
through an open window, she knew she had to
act.
“My initial thought was to call 911 but then I
looked closer and saw Bella was in a tremendous
amount of stress, hyperventilating and crying," Fiet
said. "I just dropped my phone and ran out the
door.”
PHOTO: Cupcake store owner Leslie Fiet is being
hailed as a hero after rescuing 3-year-old Bella
Martinez.
“My thought was just to get her out of the car,”
she said. “As I’m diving through the open window
I thought, ‘Please don’t shoot me,’ and then I
thought, ‘Well if they drive off I’ll be hanging out
the window and someone will call 911.’”
Luckily for Fiet and Bella, the suspect, identified by
police as 24-year-old Rosealee Maria Key, had
already abandoned the SUV.
In a span of what Fiet estimates to be about 30
seconds, she got Bella out of the SUV and safely
inside the cupcake shop. Fiet locked the door, only
allowing a customer she knew, who was also a
nurse, in to help her.
While the customer called 911, Fiet says she read
Bella books and gave her a stuffed animal to hold
on to.
“I thought about giving her a cupcake but with so
many allergies now –- gluten free, dairy free -- I
didn’t dare give her any food,” Fiet said.
When a plain-clothed police officer happened to
walk by, Fiet let him in, but only after verifying his
badge number with the 911 operator.
“He was calling out the number through the
window,” she said.
Nearly 45 minutes later, Bella’s parents arrived at
Fiet’s store, accompanied by the police chief and
their extended family, who had all been out
searching for Bella on their own.
PHOTO: Cupcake store owner Leslie Fiet is being
hailed a hero after rescuing 3-year-old Bella
Martinez. Mini's Cupcakes, pictured here in a
photo posted to Instagram on Jan. 16, 2015, was
recently burglarized.
“It was a whole lot of thank you’s and hugs,” Fiet
said of the meeting. “I don’t think you can even
talk at that point.”
“The relief of knowing your child is safe and that
nothing has happened to her, what else can you
say? You’re just in tears,” she said.
Fiat went home around 8:30 that night and came
back to her bakery early the next morning,
thinking it would be a normal work day.
“I’m getting lines and lines and I can’t bake and
frost fast enough and I’m like, ‘What is going
on?,’” Fiet said. “Then someone said, ‘They said
what you did on the radio and said to come down
and support you.”
So many people came to support Fiet's shop that
some of her friends took the day off from their own
jobs to help her man the crowds. On Thursday
night, a local talk radio show broadcast live from
Mini's Cupcakes, keeping the store open well past
its usual 6 p.m. closing time.
In addition to the new customers, flowers, cards
and thank you notes have been pouring in from
complete strangers, according to Fiet.
“People are saying hero which makes me
uncomfortable because I don’t feel that way,” she
said. “I think of a hero as a firefighter running into
a building. I think I have more of an attitude that
I’m grateful to have been in a position to be there
for Bella..”
One gift that Fiet has not removed from herself is
the one given to her by Bella’s father when he and
Bella’s family returned to Mini’s Cupcakes on
Friday to say thank you again.
“Bella’s parents gave me a beautiful charm
necklace with the date of her abduction and angel
wings,” Fiet said. “Her dad put it on me and I
haven’t taken it off.”
The suspect in the case turned herself into
authorities on Feb. 4. She was arrested by police
and charged with unauthorized use of a vehicle
and child endangerment, authorities told ABC
News.
Rewards
The lines at Mini’s Cupcakes in Salt Lake City have
been out the door since last Thursday because the
store’s owner, Leslie Fiet , is being hailed as a
hero.
Fiet, 44, was in her bakery's kitchen prepping
Valentine’s Day treats on Feb. 4, when, at around
5 p.m., she saw an Amber Alert flash on her
cellphone.
Fiet, a mother of two sons, said the alert caught
her eye because it indicated the child in danger
was in a black SUV. Fiet remembered seeing black
SUV parked outside her shop and assumed it was
a customer at the framing store next door.
“After I got the message I looked out my door and
saw the SUV but there was no license plate on the
front,” Fiet, who opened Mini's in 2007, told ABC
News. "I went to the other side and saw the
license plate and thought, ‘Oh my hell.’”
Sitting inside the black SUV was the focus of the
Amber Alert, 3-year-old Bella Martinez. Bella had
been left sleeping inside the car by her father,
Pedro Martinez, around 3 p.m., that day while he
went into a convenience store located about 25
blocks away from the cupcake shop, according to
police.
A woman who approached Martinez for a cigarette
at the convenience store got inside his car and
drove off with Bella as soon as Martinez was
inside the store, Salt Lake South Police
Department executive officer Gary Keller told ABC
News.
Fiet said when she saw Bella inside the car
through an open window, she knew she had to
act.
“My initial thought was to call 911 but then I
looked closer and saw Bella was in a tremendous
amount of stress, hyperventilating and crying," Fiet
said. "I just dropped my phone and ran out the
door.”
PHOTO: Cupcake store owner Leslie Fiet is being
hailed as a hero after rescuing 3-year-old Bella
Martinez.
“My thought was just to get her out of the car,”
she said. “As I’m diving through the open window
I thought, ‘Please don’t shoot me,’ and then I
thought, ‘Well if they drive off I’ll be hanging out
the window and someone will call 911.’”
Luckily for Fiet and Bella, the suspect, identified by
police as 24-year-old Rosealee Maria Key, had
already abandoned the SUV.
In a span of what Fiet estimates to be about 30
seconds, she got Bella out of the SUV and safely
inside the cupcake shop. Fiet locked the door, only
allowing a customer she knew, who was also a
nurse, in to help her.
While the customer called 911, Fiet says she read
Bella books and gave her a stuffed animal to hold
on to.
“I thought about giving her a cupcake but with so
many allergies now –- gluten free, dairy free -- I
didn’t dare give her any food,” Fiet said.
When a plain-clothed police officer happened to
walk by, Fiet let him in, but only after verifying his
badge number with the 911 operator.
“He was calling out the number through the
window,” she said.
Nearly 45 minutes later, Bella’s parents arrived at
Fiet’s store, accompanied by the police chief and
their extended family, who had all been out
searching for Bella on their own.
PHOTO: Cupcake store owner Leslie Fiet is being
hailed a hero after rescuing 3-year-old Bella
Martinez. Mini's Cupcakes, pictured here in a
photo posted to Instagram on Jan. 16, 2015, was
recently burglarized.
“It was a whole lot of thank you’s and hugs,” Fiet
said of the meeting. “I don’t think you can even
talk at that point.”
“The relief of knowing your child is safe and that
nothing has happened to her, what else can you
say? You’re just in tears,” she said.
Fiat went home around 8:30 that night and came
back to her bakery early the next morning,
thinking it would be a normal work day.
“I’m getting lines and lines and I can’t bake and
frost fast enough and I’m like, ‘What is going
on?,’” Fiet said. “Then someone said, ‘They said
what you did on the radio and said to come down
and support you.”
So many people came to support Fiet's shop that
some of her friends took the day off from their own
jobs to help her man the crowds. On Thursday
night, a local talk radio show broadcast live from
Mini's Cupcakes, keeping the store open well past
its usual 6 p.m. closing time.
In addition to the new customers, flowers, cards
and thank you notes have been pouring in from
complete strangers, according to Fiet.
“People are saying hero which makes me
uncomfortable because I don’t feel that way,” she
said. “I think of a hero as a firefighter running into
a building. I think I have more of an attitude that
I’m grateful to have been in a position to be there
for Bella..”
One gift that Fiet has not removed from herself is
the one given to her by Bella’s father when he and
Bella’s family returned to Mini’s Cupcakes on
Friday to say thank you again.
“Bella’s parents gave me a beautiful charm
necklace with the date of her abduction and angel
wings,” Fiet said. “Her dad put it on me and I
haven’t taken it off.”
The suspect in the case turned herself into
authorities on Feb. 4. She was arrested by police
and charged with unauthorized use of a vehicle
and child endangerment, authorities told ABC
News.
Brave
Hero Bakery Owner Gets Sweet
Rewards
The lines at Mini’s Cupcakes in Salt Lake City have
been out the door since last Thursday because the
store’s owner, Leslie Fiet , is being hailed as a
hero.
Fiet, 44, was in her bakery's kitchen prepping
Valentine’s Day treats on Feb. 4, when, at around
5 p.m., she saw an Amber Alert flash on her
cellphone.
Fiet, a mother of two sons, said the alert caught
her eye because it indicated the child in danger
was in a black SUV. Fiet remembered seeing black
SUV parked outside her shop and assumed it was
a customer at the framing store next door.
“After I got the message I looked out my door and
saw the SUV but there was no license plate on the
front,” Fiet, who opened Mini's in 2007, told ABC
News. "I went to the other side and saw the
license plate and thought, ‘Oh my hell.’”
Sitting inside the black SUV was the focus of the
Amber Alert, 3-year-old Bella Martinez. Bella had
been left sleeping inside the car by her father,
Pedro Martinez, around 3 p.m., that day while he
went into a convenience store located about 25
blocks away from the cupcake shop, according to
police.
A woman who approached Martinez for a cigarette
at the convenience store got inside his car and
drove off with Bella as soon as Martinez was
inside the store, Salt Lake South Police
Department executive officer Gary Keller told ABC
News.
Fiet said when she saw Bella inside the car
through an open window, she knew she had to
act.
“My initial thought was to call 911 but then I
looked closer and saw Bella was in a tremendous
amount of stress, hyperventilating and crying," Fiet
said. "I just dropped my phone and ran out the
door.”
PHOTO: Cupcake store owner Leslie Fiet is being
hailed as a hero after rescuing 3-year-old Bella
Martinez.
“My thought was just to get her out of the car,”
she said. “As I’m diving through the open window
I thought, ‘Please don’t shoot me,’ and then I
thought, ‘Well if they drive off I’ll be hanging out
the window and someone will call 911.’”
Luckily for Fiet and Bella, the suspect, identified by
police as 24-year-old Rosealee Maria Key, had
already abandoned the SUV.
In a span of what Fiet estimates to be about 30
seconds, she got Bella out of the SUV and safely
inside the cupcake shop. Fiet locked the door, only
allowing a customer she knew, who was also a
nurse, in to help her.
While the customer called 911, Fiet says she read
Bella books and gave her a stuffed animal to hold
on to.
“I thought about giving her a cupcake but with so
many allergies now –- gluten free, dairy free -- I
didn’t dare give her any food,” Fiet said.
When a plain-clothed police officer happened to
walk by, Fiet let him in, but only after verifying his
badge number with the 911 operator.
“He was calling out the number through the
window,” she said.
Nearly 45 minutes later, Bella’s parents arrived at
Fiet’s store, accompanied by the police chief and
their extended family, who had all been out
searching for Bella on their own.
PHOTO: Cupcake store owner Leslie Fiet is being
hailed a hero after rescuing 3-year-old Bella
Martinez. Mini's Cupcakes, pictured here in a
photo posted to Instagram on Jan. 16, 2015, was
recently burglarized.
“It was a whole lot of thank you’s and hugs,” Fiet
said of the meeting. “I don’t think you can even
talk at that point.”
“The relief of knowing your child is safe and that
nothing has happened to her, what else can you
say? You’re just in tears,” she said.
Fiat went home around 8:30 that night and came
back to her bakery early the next morning,
thinking it would be a normal work day.
“I’m getting lines and lines and I can’t bake and
frost fast enough and I’m like, ‘What is going
on?,’” Fiet said. “Then someone said, ‘They said
what you did on the radio and said to come down
and support you.”
So many people came to support Fiet's shop that
some of her friends took the day off from their own
jobs to help her man the crowds. On Thursday
night, a local talk radio show broadcast live from
Mini's Cupcakes, keeping the store open well past
its usual 6 p.m. closing time.
In addition to the new customers, flowers, cards
and thank you notes have been pouring in from
complete strangers, according to Fiet.
“People are saying hero which makes me
uncomfortable because I don’t feel that way,” she
said. “I think of a hero as a firefighter running into
a building. I think I have more of an attitude that
I’m grateful to have been in a position to be there
for Bella..”
One gift that Fiet has not removed from herself is
the one given to her by Bella’s father when he and
Bella’s family returned to Mini’s Cupcakes on
Friday to say thank you again.
“Bella’s parents gave me a beautiful charm
necklace with the date of her abduction and angel
wings,” Fiet said. “Her dad put it on me and I
haven’t taken it off.”
The suspect in the case turned herself into
authorities on Feb. 4. She was arrested by police
and charged with unauthorized use of a vehicle
and child endangerment, authorities told ABC
News.
Rewards
The lines at Mini’s Cupcakes in Salt Lake City have
been out the door since last Thursday because the
store’s owner, Leslie Fiet , is being hailed as a
hero.
Fiet, 44, was in her bakery's kitchen prepping
Valentine’s Day treats on Feb. 4, when, at around
5 p.m., she saw an Amber Alert flash on her
cellphone.
Fiet, a mother of two sons, said the alert caught
her eye because it indicated the child in danger
was in a black SUV. Fiet remembered seeing black
SUV parked outside her shop and assumed it was
a customer at the framing store next door.
“After I got the message I looked out my door and
saw the SUV but there was no license plate on the
front,” Fiet, who opened Mini's in 2007, told ABC
News. "I went to the other side and saw the
license plate and thought, ‘Oh my hell.’”
Sitting inside the black SUV was the focus of the
Amber Alert, 3-year-old Bella Martinez. Bella had
been left sleeping inside the car by her father,
Pedro Martinez, around 3 p.m., that day while he
went into a convenience store located about 25
blocks away from the cupcake shop, according to
police.
A woman who approached Martinez for a cigarette
at the convenience store got inside his car and
drove off with Bella as soon as Martinez was
inside the store, Salt Lake South Police
Department executive officer Gary Keller told ABC
News.
Fiet said when she saw Bella inside the car
through an open window, she knew she had to
act.
“My initial thought was to call 911 but then I
looked closer and saw Bella was in a tremendous
amount of stress, hyperventilating and crying," Fiet
said. "I just dropped my phone and ran out the
door.”
PHOTO: Cupcake store owner Leslie Fiet is being
hailed as a hero after rescuing 3-year-old Bella
Martinez.
“My thought was just to get her out of the car,”
she said. “As I’m diving through the open window
I thought, ‘Please don’t shoot me,’ and then I
thought, ‘Well if they drive off I’ll be hanging out
the window and someone will call 911.’”
Luckily for Fiet and Bella, the suspect, identified by
police as 24-year-old Rosealee Maria Key, had
already abandoned the SUV.
In a span of what Fiet estimates to be about 30
seconds, she got Bella out of the SUV and safely
inside the cupcake shop. Fiet locked the door, only
allowing a customer she knew, who was also a
nurse, in to help her.
While the customer called 911, Fiet says she read
Bella books and gave her a stuffed animal to hold
on to.
“I thought about giving her a cupcake but with so
many allergies now –- gluten free, dairy free -- I
didn’t dare give her any food,” Fiet said.
When a plain-clothed police officer happened to
walk by, Fiet let him in, but only after verifying his
badge number with the 911 operator.
“He was calling out the number through the
window,” she said.
Nearly 45 minutes later, Bella’s parents arrived at
Fiet’s store, accompanied by the police chief and
their extended family, who had all been out
searching for Bella on their own.
PHOTO: Cupcake store owner Leslie Fiet is being
hailed a hero after rescuing 3-year-old Bella
Martinez. Mini's Cupcakes, pictured here in a
photo posted to Instagram on Jan. 16, 2015, was
recently burglarized.
“It was a whole lot of thank you’s and hugs,” Fiet
said of the meeting. “I don’t think you can even
talk at that point.”
“The relief of knowing your child is safe and that
nothing has happened to her, what else can you
say? You’re just in tears,” she said.
Fiat went home around 8:30 that night and came
back to her bakery early the next morning,
thinking it would be a normal work day.
“I’m getting lines and lines and I can’t bake and
frost fast enough and I’m like, ‘What is going
on?,’” Fiet said. “Then someone said, ‘They said
what you did on the radio and said to come down
and support you.”
So many people came to support Fiet's shop that
some of her friends took the day off from their own
jobs to help her man the crowds. On Thursday
night, a local talk radio show broadcast live from
Mini's Cupcakes, keeping the store open well past
its usual 6 p.m. closing time.
In addition to the new customers, flowers, cards
and thank you notes have been pouring in from
complete strangers, according to Fiet.
“People are saying hero which makes me
uncomfortable because I don’t feel that way,” she
said. “I think of a hero as a firefighter running into
a building. I think I have more of an attitude that
I’m grateful to have been in a position to be there
for Bella..”
One gift that Fiet has not removed from herself is
the one given to her by Bella’s father when he and
Bella’s family returned to Mini’s Cupcakes on
Friday to say thank you again.
“Bella’s parents gave me a beautiful charm
necklace with the date of her abduction and angel
wings,” Fiet said. “Her dad put it on me and I
haven’t taken it off.”
The suspect in the case turned herself into
authorities on Feb. 4. She was arrested by police
and charged with unauthorized use of a vehicle
and child endangerment, authorities told ABC
News.
Brave
Hero Bakery Owner Gets Sweet
Rewards
The lines at Mini’s Cupcakes in Salt Lake City have
been out the door since last Thursday because the
store’s owner, Leslie Fiet , is being hailed as a
hero.
Fiet, 44, was in her bakery's kitchen prepping
Valentine’s Day treats on Feb. 4, when, at around
5 p.m., she saw an Amber Alert flash on her
cellphone.
Fiet, a mother of two sons, said the alert caught
her eye because it indicated the child in danger
was in a black SUV. Fiet remembered seeing black
SUV parked outside her shop and assumed it was
a customer at the framing store next door.
“After I got the message I looked out my door and
saw the SUV but there was no license plate on the
front,” Fiet, who opened Mini's in 2007, told ABC
News. "I went to the other side and saw the
license plate and thought, ‘Oh my hell.’”
Sitting inside the black SUV was the focus of the
Amber Alert, 3-year-old Bella Martinez. Bella had
been left sleeping inside the car by her father,
Pedro Martinez, around 3 p.m., that day while he
went into a convenience store located about 25
blocks away from the cupcake shop, according to
police.
A woman who approached Martinez for a cigarette
at the convenience store got inside his car and
drove off with Bella as soon as Martinez was
inside the store, Salt Lake South Police
Department executive officer Gary Keller told ABC
News.
Fiet said when she saw Bella inside the car
through an open window, she knew she had to
act.
“My initial thought was to call 911 but then I
looked closer and saw Bella was in a tremendous
amount of stress, hyperventilating and crying," Fiet
said. "I just dropped my phone and ran out the
door.”
PHOTO: Cupcake store owner Leslie Fiet is being
hailed as a hero after rescuing 3-year-old Bella
Martinez.
“My thought was just to get her out of the car,”
she said. “As I’m diving through the open window
I thought, ‘Please don’t shoot me,’ and then I
thought, ‘Well if they drive off I’ll be hanging out
the window and someone will call 911.’”
Luckily for Fiet and Bella, the suspect, identified by
police as 24-year-old Rosealee Maria Key, had
already abandoned the SUV.
In a span of what Fiet estimates to be about 30
seconds, she got Bella out of the SUV and safely
inside the cupcake shop. Fiet locked the door, only
allowing a customer she knew, who was also a
nurse, in to help her.
While the customer called 911, Fiet says she read
Bella books and gave her a stuffed animal to hold
on to.
“I thought about giving her a cupcake but with so
many allergies now –- gluten free, dairy free -- I
didn’t dare give her any food,” Fiet said.
When a plain-clothed police officer happened to
walk by, Fiet let him in, but only after verifying his
badge number with the 911 operator.
“He was calling out the number through the
window,” she said.
Nearly 45 minutes later, Bella’s parents arrived at
Fiet’s store, accompanied by the police chief and
their extended family, who had all been out
searching for Bella on their own.
PHOTO: Cupcake store owner Leslie Fiet is being
hailed a hero after rescuing 3-year-old Bella
Martinez. Mini's Cupcakes, pictured here in a
photo posted to Instagram on Jan. 16, 2015, was
recently burglarized.
“It was a whole lot of thank you’s and hugs,” Fiet
said of the meeting. “I don’t think you can even
talk at that point.”
“The relief of knowing your child is safe and that
nothing has happened to her, what else can you
say? You’re just in tears,” she said.
Fiat went home around 8:30 that night and came
back to her bakery early the next morning,
thinking it would be a normal work day.
“I’m getting lines and lines and I can’t bake and
frost fast enough and I’m like, ‘What is going
on?,’” Fiet said. “Then someone said, ‘They said
what you did on the radio and said to come down
and support you.”
So many people came to support Fiet's shop that
some of her friends took the day off from their own
jobs to help her man the crowds. On Thursday
night, a local talk radio show broadcast live from
Mini's Cupcakes, keeping the store open well past
its usual 6 p.m. closing time.
In addition to the new customers, flowers, cards
and thank you notes have been pouring in from
complete strangers, according to Fiet.
“People are saying hero which makes me
uncomfortable because I don’t feel that way,” she
said. “I think of a hero as a firefighter running into
a building. I think I have more of an attitude that
I’m grateful to have been in a position to be there
for Bella..”
One gift that Fiet has not removed from herself is
the one given to her by Bella’s father when he and
Bella’s family returned to Mini’s Cupcakes on
Friday to say thank you again.
“Bella’s parents gave me a beautiful charm
necklace with the date of her abduction and angel
wings,” Fiet said. “Her dad put it on me and I
haven’t taken it off.”
The suspect in the case turned herself into
authorities on Feb. 4. She was arrested by police
and charged with unauthorized use of a vehicle
and child endangerment, authorities told ABC
News.
Rewards
The lines at Mini’s Cupcakes in Salt Lake City have
been out the door since last Thursday because the
store’s owner, Leslie Fiet , is being hailed as a
hero.
Fiet, 44, was in her bakery's kitchen prepping
Valentine’s Day treats on Feb. 4, when, at around
5 p.m., she saw an Amber Alert flash on her
cellphone.
Fiet, a mother of two sons, said the alert caught
her eye because it indicated the child in danger
was in a black SUV. Fiet remembered seeing black
SUV parked outside her shop and assumed it was
a customer at the framing store next door.
“After I got the message I looked out my door and
saw the SUV but there was no license plate on the
front,” Fiet, who opened Mini's in 2007, told ABC
News. "I went to the other side and saw the
license plate and thought, ‘Oh my hell.’”
Sitting inside the black SUV was the focus of the
Amber Alert, 3-year-old Bella Martinez. Bella had
been left sleeping inside the car by her father,
Pedro Martinez, around 3 p.m., that day while he
went into a convenience store located about 25
blocks away from the cupcake shop, according to
police.
A woman who approached Martinez for a cigarette
at the convenience store got inside his car and
drove off with Bella as soon as Martinez was
inside the store, Salt Lake South Police
Department executive officer Gary Keller told ABC
News.
Fiet said when she saw Bella inside the car
through an open window, she knew she had to
act.
“My initial thought was to call 911 but then I
looked closer and saw Bella was in a tremendous
amount of stress, hyperventilating and crying," Fiet
said. "I just dropped my phone and ran out the
door.”
PHOTO: Cupcake store owner Leslie Fiet is being
hailed as a hero after rescuing 3-year-old Bella
Martinez.
“My thought was just to get her out of the car,”
she said. “As I’m diving through the open window
I thought, ‘Please don’t shoot me,’ and then I
thought, ‘Well if they drive off I’ll be hanging out
the window and someone will call 911.’”
Luckily for Fiet and Bella, the suspect, identified by
police as 24-year-old Rosealee Maria Key, had
already abandoned the SUV.
In a span of what Fiet estimates to be about 30
seconds, she got Bella out of the SUV and safely
inside the cupcake shop. Fiet locked the door, only
allowing a customer she knew, who was also a
nurse, in to help her.
While the customer called 911, Fiet says she read
Bella books and gave her a stuffed animal to hold
on to.
“I thought about giving her a cupcake but with so
many allergies now –- gluten free, dairy free -- I
didn’t dare give her any food,” Fiet said.
When a plain-clothed police officer happened to
walk by, Fiet let him in, but only after verifying his
badge number with the 911 operator.
“He was calling out the number through the
window,” she said.
Nearly 45 minutes later, Bella’s parents arrived at
Fiet’s store, accompanied by the police chief and
their extended family, who had all been out
searching for Bella on their own.
PHOTO: Cupcake store owner Leslie Fiet is being
hailed a hero after rescuing 3-year-old Bella
Martinez. Mini's Cupcakes, pictured here in a
photo posted to Instagram on Jan. 16, 2015, was
recently burglarized.
“It was a whole lot of thank you’s and hugs,” Fiet
said of the meeting. “I don’t think you can even
talk at that point.”
“The relief of knowing your child is safe and that
nothing has happened to her, what else can you
say? You’re just in tears,” she said.
Fiat went home around 8:30 that night and came
back to her bakery early the next morning,
thinking it would be a normal work day.
“I’m getting lines and lines and I can’t bake and
frost fast enough and I’m like, ‘What is going
on?,’” Fiet said. “Then someone said, ‘They said
what you did on the radio and said to come down
and support you.”
So many people came to support Fiet's shop that
some of her friends took the day off from their own
jobs to help her man the crowds. On Thursday
night, a local talk radio show broadcast live from
Mini's Cupcakes, keeping the store open well past
its usual 6 p.m. closing time.
In addition to the new customers, flowers, cards
and thank you notes have been pouring in from
complete strangers, according to Fiet.
“People are saying hero which makes me
uncomfortable because I don’t feel that way,” she
said. “I think of a hero as a firefighter running into
a building. I think I have more of an attitude that
I’m grateful to have been in a position to be there
for Bella..”
One gift that Fiet has not removed from herself is
the one given to her by Bella’s father when he and
Bella’s family returned to Mini’s Cupcakes on
Friday to say thank you again.
“Bella’s parents gave me a beautiful charm
necklace with the date of her abduction and angel
wings,” Fiet said. “Her dad put it on me and I
haven’t taken it off.”
The suspect in the case turned herself into
authorities on Feb. 4. She was arrested by police
and charged with unauthorized use of a vehicle
and child endangerment, authorities told ABC
News.
Brave
Hero Bakery Owner Gets Sweet
Rewards
The lines at Mini’s Cupcakes in Salt Lake City have
been out the door since last Thursday because the
store’s owner, Leslie Fiet , is being hailed as a
hero.
Fiet, 44, was in her bakery's kitchen prepping
Valentine’s Day treats on Feb. 4, when, at around
5 p.m., she saw an Amber Alert flash on her
cellphone.
Fiet, a mother of two sons, said the alert caught
her eye because it indicated the child in danger
was in a black SUV. Fiet remembered seeing black
SUV parked outside her shop and assumed it was
a customer at the framing store next door.
“After I got the message I looked out my door and
saw the SUV but there was no license plate on the
front,” Fiet, who opened Mini's in 2007, told ABC
News. "I went to the other side and saw the
license plate and thought, ‘Oh my hell.’”
Sitting inside the black SUV was the focus of the
Amber Alert, 3-year-old Bella Martinez. Bella had
been left sleeping inside the car by her father,
Pedro Martinez, around 3 p.m., that day while he
went into a convenience store located about 25
blocks away from the cupcake shop, according to
police.
A woman who approached Martinez for a cigarette
at the convenience store got inside his car and
drove off with Bella as soon as Martinez was
inside the store, Salt Lake South Police
Department executive officer Gary Keller told ABC
News.
Fiet said when she saw Bella inside the car
through an open window, she knew she had to
act.
“My initial thought was to call 911 but then I
looked closer and saw Bella was in a tremendous
amount of stress, hyperventilating and crying," Fiet
said. "I just dropped my phone and ran out the
door.”
PHOTO: Cupcake store owner Leslie Fiet is being
hailed as a hero after rescuing 3-year-old Bella
Martinez.
“My thought was just to get her out of the car,”
she said. “As I’m diving through the open window
I thought, ‘Please don’t shoot me,’ and then I
thought, ‘Well if they drive off I’ll be hanging out
the window and someone will call 911.’”
Luckily for Fiet and Bella, the suspect, identified by
police as 24-year-old Rosealee Maria Key, had
already abandoned the SUV.
In a span of what Fiet estimates to be about 30
seconds, she got Bella out of the SUV and safely
inside the cupcake shop. Fiet locked the door, only
allowing a customer she knew, who was also a
nurse, in to help her.
While the customer called 911, Fiet says she read
Bella books and gave her a stuffed animal to hold
on to.
“I thought about giving her a cupcake but with so
many allergies now –- gluten free, dairy free -- I
didn’t dare give her any food,” Fiet said.
When a plain-clothed police officer happened to
walk by, Fiet let him in, but only after verifying his
badge number with the 911 operator.
“He was calling out the number through the
window,” she said.
Nearly 45 minutes later, Bella’s parents arrived at
Fiet’s store, accompanied by the police chief and
their extended family, who had all been out
searching for Bella on their own.
PHOTO: Cupcake store owner Leslie Fiet is being
hailed a hero after rescuing 3-year-old Bella
Martinez. Mini's Cupcakes, pictured here in a
photo posted to Instagram on Jan. 16, 2015, was
recently burglarized.
“It was a whole lot of thank you’s and hugs,” Fiet
said of the meeting. “I don’t think you can even
talk at that point.”
“The relief of knowing your child is safe and that
nothing has happened to her, what else can you
say? You’re just in tears,” she said.
Fiat went home around 8:30 that night and came
back to her bakery early the next morning,
thinking it would be a normal work day.
“I’m getting lines and lines and I can’t bake and
frost fast enough and I’m like, ‘What is going
on?,’” Fiet said. “Then someone said, ‘They said
what you did on the radio and said to come down
and support you.”
So many people came to support Fiet's shop that
some of her friends took the day off from their own
jobs to help her man the crowds. On Thursday
night, a local talk radio show broadcast live from
Mini's Cupcakes, keeping the store open well past
its usual 6 p.m. closing time.
In addition to the new customers, flowers, cards
and thank you notes have been pouring in from
complete strangers, according to Fiet.
“People are saying hero which makes me
uncomfortable because I don’t feel that way,” she
said. “I think of a hero as a firefighter running into
a building. I think I have more of an attitude that
I’m grateful to have been in a position to be there
for Bella..”
One gift that Fiet has not removed from herself is
the one given to her by Bella’s father when he and
Bella’s family returned to Mini’s Cupcakes on
Friday to say thank you again.
“Bella’s parents gave me a beautiful charm
necklace with the date of her abduction and angel
wings,” Fiet said. “Her dad put it on me and I
haven’t taken it off.”
The suspect in the case turned herself into
authorities on Feb. 4. She was arrested by police
and charged with unauthorized use of a vehicle
and child endangerment, authorities told ABC
News.
Rewards
The lines at Mini’s Cupcakes in Salt Lake City have
been out the door since last Thursday because the
store’s owner, Leslie Fiet , is being hailed as a
hero.
Fiet, 44, was in her bakery's kitchen prepping
Valentine’s Day treats on Feb. 4, when, at around
5 p.m., she saw an Amber Alert flash on her
cellphone.
Fiet, a mother of two sons, said the alert caught
her eye because it indicated the child in danger
was in a black SUV. Fiet remembered seeing black
SUV parked outside her shop and assumed it was
a customer at the framing store next door.
“After I got the message I looked out my door and
saw the SUV but there was no license plate on the
front,” Fiet, who opened Mini's in 2007, told ABC
News. "I went to the other side and saw the
license plate and thought, ‘Oh my hell.’”
Sitting inside the black SUV was the focus of the
Amber Alert, 3-year-old Bella Martinez. Bella had
been left sleeping inside the car by her father,
Pedro Martinez, around 3 p.m., that day while he
went into a convenience store located about 25
blocks away from the cupcake shop, according to
police.
A woman who approached Martinez for a cigarette
at the convenience store got inside his car and
drove off with Bella as soon as Martinez was
inside the store, Salt Lake South Police
Department executive officer Gary Keller told ABC
News.
Fiet said when she saw Bella inside the car
through an open window, she knew she had to
act.
“My initial thought was to call 911 but then I
looked closer and saw Bella was in a tremendous
amount of stress, hyperventilating and crying," Fiet
said. "I just dropped my phone and ran out the
door.”
PHOTO: Cupcake store owner Leslie Fiet is being
hailed as a hero after rescuing 3-year-old Bella
Martinez.
“My thought was just to get her out of the car,”
she said. “As I’m diving through the open window
I thought, ‘Please don’t shoot me,’ and then I
thought, ‘Well if they drive off I’ll be hanging out
the window and someone will call 911.’”
Luckily for Fiet and Bella, the suspect, identified by
police as 24-year-old Rosealee Maria Key, had
already abandoned the SUV.
In a span of what Fiet estimates to be about 30
seconds, she got Bella out of the SUV and safely
inside the cupcake shop. Fiet locked the door, only
allowing a customer she knew, who was also a
nurse, in to help her.
While the customer called 911, Fiet says she read
Bella books and gave her a stuffed animal to hold
on to.
“I thought about giving her a cupcake but with so
many allergies now –- gluten free, dairy free -- I
didn’t dare give her any food,” Fiet said.
When a plain-clothed police officer happened to
walk by, Fiet let him in, but only after verifying his
badge number with the 911 operator.
“He was calling out the number through the
window,” she said.
Nearly 45 minutes later, Bella’s parents arrived at
Fiet’s store, accompanied by the police chief and
their extended family, who had all been out
searching for Bella on their own.
PHOTO: Cupcake store owner Leslie Fiet is being
hailed a hero after rescuing 3-year-old Bella
Martinez. Mini's Cupcakes, pictured here in a
photo posted to Instagram on Jan. 16, 2015, was
recently burglarized.
“It was a whole lot of thank you’s and hugs,” Fiet
said of the meeting. “I don’t think you can even
talk at that point.”
“The relief of knowing your child is safe and that
nothing has happened to her, what else can you
say? You’re just in tears,” she said.
Fiat went home around 8:30 that night and came
back to her bakery early the next morning,
thinking it would be a normal work day.
“I’m getting lines and lines and I can’t bake and
frost fast enough and I’m like, ‘What is going
on?,’” Fiet said. “Then someone said, ‘They said
what you did on the radio and said to come down
and support you.”
So many people came to support Fiet's shop that
some of her friends took the day off from their own
jobs to help her man the crowds. On Thursday
night, a local talk radio show broadcast live from
Mini's Cupcakes, keeping the store open well past
its usual 6 p.m. closing time.
In addition to the new customers, flowers, cards
and thank you notes have been pouring in from
complete strangers, according to Fiet.
“People are saying hero which makes me
uncomfortable because I don’t feel that way,” she
said. “I think of a hero as a firefighter running into
a building. I think I have more of an attitude that
I’m grateful to have been in a position to be there
for Bella..”
One gift that Fiet has not removed from herself is
the one given to her by Bella’s father when he and
Bella’s family returned to Mini’s Cupcakes on
Friday to say thank you again.
“Bella’s parents gave me a beautiful charm
necklace with the date of her abduction and angel
wings,” Fiet said. “Her dad put it on me and I
haven’t taken it off.”
The suspect in the case turned herself into
authorities on Feb. 4. She was arrested by police
and charged with unauthorized use of a vehicle
and child endangerment, authorities told ABC
News.
Brave
Hero Bakery Owner Gets Sweet
Rewards
The lines at Mini’s Cupcakes in Salt Lake City have
been out the door since last Thursday because the
store’s owner, Leslie Fiet , is being hailed as a
hero.
Fiet, 44, was in her bakery's kitchen prepping
Valentine’s Day treats on Feb. 4, when, at around
5 p.m., she saw an Amber Alert flash on her
cellphone.
Fiet, a mother of two sons, said the alert caught
her eye because it indicated the child in danger
was in a black SUV. Fiet remembered seeing black
SUV parked outside her shop and assumed it was
a customer at the framing store next door.
“After I got the message I looked out my door and
saw the SUV but there was no license plate on the
front,” Fiet, who opened Mini's in 2007, told ABC
News. "I went to the other side and saw the
license plate and thought, ‘Oh my hell.’”
Sitting inside the black SUV was the focus of the
Amber Alert, 3-year-old Bella Martinez. Bella had
been left sleeping inside the car by her father,
Pedro Martinez, around 3 p.m., that day while he
went into a convenience store located about 25
blocks away from the cupcake shop, according to
police.
A woman who approached Martinez for a cigarette
at the convenience store got inside his car and
drove off with Bella as soon as Martinez was
inside the store, Salt Lake South Police
Department executive officer Gary Keller told ABC
News.
Fiet said when she saw Bella inside the car
through an open window, she knew she had to
act.
“My initial thought was to call 911 but then I
looked closer and saw Bella was in a tremendous
amount of stress, hyperventilating and crying," Fiet
said. "I just dropped my phone and ran out the
door.”
PHOTO: Cupcake store owner Leslie Fiet is being
hailed as a hero after rescuing 3-year-old Bella
Martinez.
“My thought was just to get her out of the car,”
she said. “As I’m diving through the open window
I thought, ‘Please don’t shoot me,’ and then I
thought, ‘Well if they drive off I’ll be hanging out
the window and someone will call 911.’”
Luckily for Fiet and Bella, the suspect, identified by
police as 24-year-old Rosealee Maria Key, had
already abandoned the SUV.
In a span of what Fiet estimates to be about 30
seconds, she got Bella out of the SUV and safely
inside the cupcake shop. Fiet locked the door, only
allowing a customer she knew, who was also a
nurse, in to help her.
While the customer called 911, Fiet says she read
Bella books and gave her a stuffed animal to hold
on to.
“I thought about giving her a cupcake but with so
many allergies now –- gluten free, dairy free -- I
didn’t dare give her any food,” Fiet said.
When a plain-clothed police officer happened to
walk by, Fiet let him in, but only after verifying his
badge number with the 911 operator.
“He was calling out the number through the
window,” she said.
Nearly 45 minutes later, Bella’s parents arrived at
Fiet’s store, accompanied by the police chief and
their extended family, who had all been out
searching for Bella on their own.
PHOTO: Cupcake store owner Leslie Fiet is being
hailed a hero after rescuing 3-year-old Bella
Martinez. Mini's Cupcakes, pictured here in a
photo posted to Instagram on Jan. 16, 2015, was
recently burglarized.
“It was a whole lot of thank you’s and hugs,” Fiet
said of the meeting. “I don’t think you can even
talk at that point.”
“The relief of knowing your child is safe and that
nothing has happened to her, what else can you
say? You’re just in tears,” she said.
Fiat went home around 8:30 that night and came
back to her bakery early the next morning,
thinking it would be a normal work day.
“I’m getting lines and lines and I can’t bake and
frost fast enough and I’m like, ‘What is going
on?,’” Fiet said. “Then someone said, ‘They said
what you did on the radio and said to come down
and support you.”
So many people came to support Fiet's shop that
some of her friends took the day off from their own
jobs to help her man the crowds. On Thursday
night, a local talk radio show broadcast live from
Mini's Cupcakes, keeping the store open well past
its usual 6 p.m. closing time.
In addition to the new customers, flowers, cards
and thank you notes have been pouring in from
complete strangers, according to Fiet.
“People are saying hero which makes me
uncomfortable because I don’t feel that way,” she
said. “I think of a hero as a firefighter running into
a building. I think I have more of an attitude that
I’m grateful to have been in a position to be there
for Bella..”
One gift that Fiet has not removed from herself is
the one given to her by Bella’s father when he and
Bella’s family returned to Mini’s Cupcakes on
Friday to say thank you again.
“Bella’s parents gave me a beautiful charm
necklace with the date of her abduction and angel
wings,” Fiet said. “Her dad put it on me and I
haven’t taken it off.”
The suspect in the case turned herself into
authorities on Feb. 4. She was arrested by police
and charged with unauthorized use of a vehicle
and child endangerment, authorities told ABC
News.
Rewards
The lines at Mini’s Cupcakes in Salt Lake City have
been out the door since last Thursday because the
store’s owner, Leslie Fiet , is being hailed as a
hero.
Fiet, 44, was in her bakery's kitchen prepping
Valentine’s Day treats on Feb. 4, when, at around
5 p.m., she saw an Amber Alert flash on her
cellphone.
Fiet, a mother of two sons, said the alert caught
her eye because it indicated the child in danger
was in a black SUV. Fiet remembered seeing black
SUV parked outside her shop and assumed it was
a customer at the framing store next door.
“After I got the message I looked out my door and
saw the SUV but there was no license plate on the
front,” Fiet, who opened Mini's in 2007, told ABC
News. "I went to the other side and saw the
license plate and thought, ‘Oh my hell.’”
Sitting inside the black SUV was the focus of the
Amber Alert, 3-year-old Bella Martinez. Bella had
been left sleeping inside the car by her father,
Pedro Martinez, around 3 p.m., that day while he
went into a convenience store located about 25
blocks away from the cupcake shop, according to
police.
A woman who approached Martinez for a cigarette
at the convenience store got inside his car and
drove off with Bella as soon as Martinez was
inside the store, Salt Lake South Police
Department executive officer Gary Keller told ABC
News.
Fiet said when she saw Bella inside the car
through an open window, she knew she had to
act.
“My initial thought was to call 911 but then I
looked closer and saw Bella was in a tremendous
amount of stress, hyperventilating and crying," Fiet
said. "I just dropped my phone and ran out the
door.”
PHOTO: Cupcake store owner Leslie Fiet is being
hailed as a hero after rescuing 3-year-old Bella
Martinez.
“My thought was just to get her out of the car,”
she said. “As I’m diving through the open window
I thought, ‘Please don’t shoot me,’ and then I
thought, ‘Well if they drive off I’ll be hanging out
the window and someone will call 911.’”
Luckily for Fiet and Bella, the suspect, identified by
police as 24-year-old Rosealee Maria Key, had
already abandoned the SUV.
In a span of what Fiet estimates to be about 30
seconds, she got Bella out of the SUV and safely
inside the cupcake shop. Fiet locked the door, only
allowing a customer she knew, who was also a
nurse, in to help her.
While the customer called 911, Fiet says she read
Bella books and gave her a stuffed animal to hold
on to.
“I thought about giving her a cupcake but with so
many allergies now –- gluten free, dairy free -- I
didn’t dare give her any food,” Fiet said.
When a plain-clothed police officer happened to
walk by, Fiet let him in, but only after verifying his
badge number with the 911 operator.
“He was calling out the number through the
window,” she said.
Nearly 45 minutes later, Bella’s parents arrived at
Fiet’s store, accompanied by the police chief and
their extended family, who had all been out
searching for Bella on their own.
PHOTO: Cupcake store owner Leslie Fiet is being
hailed a hero after rescuing 3-year-old Bella
Martinez. Mini's Cupcakes, pictured here in a
photo posted to Instagram on Jan. 16, 2015, was
recently burglarized.
“It was a whole lot of thank you’s and hugs,” Fiet
said of the meeting. “I don’t think you can even
talk at that point.”
“The relief of knowing your child is safe and that
nothing has happened to her, what else can you
say? You’re just in tears,” she said.
Fiat went home around 8:30 that night and came
back to her bakery early the next morning,
thinking it would be a normal work day.
“I’m getting lines and lines and I can’t bake and
frost fast enough and I’m like, ‘What is going
on?,’” Fiet said. “Then someone said, ‘They said
what you did on the radio and said to come down
and support you.”
So many people came to support Fiet's shop that
some of her friends took the day off from their own
jobs to help her man the crowds. On Thursday
night, a local talk radio show broadcast live from
Mini's Cupcakes, keeping the store open well past
its usual 6 p.m. closing time.
In addition to the new customers, flowers, cards
and thank you notes have been pouring in from
complete strangers, according to Fiet.
“People are saying hero which makes me
uncomfortable because I don’t feel that way,” she
said. “I think of a hero as a firefighter running into
a building. I think I have more of an attitude that
I’m grateful to have been in a position to be there
for Bella..”
One gift that Fiet has not removed from herself is
the one given to her by Bella’s father when he and
Bella’s family returned to Mini’s Cupcakes on
Friday to say thank you again.
“Bella’s parents gave me a beautiful charm
necklace with the date of her abduction and angel
wings,” Fiet said. “Her dad put it on me and I
haven’t taken it off.”
The suspect in the case turned herself into
authorities on Feb. 4. She was arrested by police
and charged with unauthorized use of a vehicle
and child endangerment, authorities told ABC
News.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)