Missing Girl Found After Using TikTok Viral Hand Signal to Call for Help

BoomRadioNG | November 9, 2021

A teenager who went missing in the US has been found after she used hand signals that went viral on TikTok to show she was in danger.

The girl had been reported missing by her parents in North Carolina on Tuesday morning, and was spotted inside a car in Kentucky two days later.

The 16-year-old used the gesture designed to help domestic abuse victims ask for help to alert a passing driver.

Authorities say they arrested a 61-year-old man.

The Laurel County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement that a driver called police after noticing “a female passenger in the vehicle making hand gestures that are known on the social media platform TikTok to represent violence at home – I need help – domestic violence,” .

The caller noted that the girl “appeared to be in distress” and was being driven by an older male.

Violence at home hand signal

The girl, who has not been named, told officers she had travelled through North Carolina, Tennessee, Kentucky, and Ohio. Police later arrested James Herbert Brick while he was driving near a Kentucky interstate on Thursday afternoon.

Paul Ayorinde