WATCH: Girl Who Beat Down and Slime-Tagged Her Would-Be Kidnapper Meets SVU Star Who Inspired Her to Fight Back

Amber Bonal spoke to the Pensacola News Journal this week about the attempted abduction of her daughter, Alyssa Bonal, who through bravery and quick thinking thwarted and tagged the would-be kidnapper. Mom and daughter both credited, at least in part, her familiarity with NBC’s Law & Order: Special Victims Unit for her smart reactions.

The attempted kidnapping was caught on security camera, and it shows how the girl fought off her attacker, who was wielding a knife. “Had this 11-year-old victim not thought to fight and to fight and to just never give up, then this could have ended terribly,” said the Escambia County Sheriff Chip Simmons. Pensacola police referred to her as “one tough-as-nails little girl.”

The 30-year-old dirtbag, who has an “extensive criminal history” including “sexual offenses with a child” was arrested and charged with attempted kidnapping of a child under 13 and aggravated assault and battery. Police used a combination of different security camera and surveillance videos to find his license plate number. They tracked him to a location they thought he might be, found him there with the van, which had fresh paint on it.

When they found him, he had a child’s homemade blue slime smeared on him.

“Mom, I had to leave some sort of evidence behind, like on Law & Order SVU,” Bonal says her daughter told her when first explaining what happened. Alyssa was playing with the homemade slime while waiting at her bus stop, and smeared it on her would-be assailant, in part due to her familiarity with the long-running, hit drama.

“We’ve watched probably every episode on Hulu,” said Bonal. She said her daughter is “a smart cookie, she thinks on her toes. She got that slime everywhere.”

The star of the show is Mariska Hargitay, of course, who has played detective and now captain Olivia Benson in all 24 seasons so far. And who on Friday made a special guest appearance on another show. With Alyssa as her co-star.

Alyssa explained on NBC’s Today that she knew to spread slime on him “from watching Law & Order”, and correspondent Kerry Sanders responded that “we have a little surprise for you here!”

“You know her as Captain Olivia Benson, she’s actress Mariska Hargitay,” he said, revealing her on a the virtual meet-up.

“I’m so incredibly honored to meet you,” Hargitay said. “First of all, how are you doing, and are you okay?”

“I’m good,” Alyssa answered.

“I just want to tell you how blown away me, and all of my squad are, and I think the whole world right now that you had the forethought and the wherewithal to do what you did, and I am just blown away,” she told Alyssa.

Hargitay held up a script from the show that she’d signed to give to Alyssa, with the message “Alyssa, you are my HERO!”

“You’re amazing, sweetheart, you’re amazing, and strong, and brave! And what’s most important to everyone is that you’re okay. And that is the most beautiful gift that we all have,” said Hargitay.

“It’s amazing to meet you. I never thought in my whole entire life that I was gonna be able to even meet you,” Alyssa said.

“I feel the same way,” Hargitay answered.

It was a great moment all around. Almost as great an 11-year-old girl standing up to a scumbag, stopping his attempted crime, and tagging that son of a bitch to get picked up later.

Would make a great episode, don’t you think?

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