Employees at a Pennsylvania store are being praised for their quick thinking in protecting a woman who alleges she was assaulted and kidnapped by her ex-boyfriend on Valentine's Day.
In harrowing video, the unnamed woman can be seen fleeing a U-Haul truck and running barefoot across the snowy parking lot of a convenience store in Butler, PA. She retreats to the back of the store as her ex-boyfriend, identified as Kenneth Clarke, pulls the U-Haul into the parking lot and enters the store, where he confronts the victim.
A woman who was allegedly assaulted and kidnapped by her ex-boyfriend in Butler, Pennsylvania was protected by staff after she ran into a store to escape him on Feb. 14.
— CBS News (@CBSNews) February 18, 2026
Video shows her running out of a U-Haul van and limping into Butler Tobacco and Grocery. One of the workers… pic.twitter.com/Eju6lz29t0
The woman ran into Butler Tobacco and Grocery.
"This girl came in shaking, shoeless, bloody, and crying, she was being kidnapped, said Tori Adams, the clerk at the store at the time. "So, I told her to hide in the back room."
Security cameras captured Clarke parking next to the store and coming inside.
"He came in yelling that she had supposedly stolen things from him," Adams said, explaining she put herself between the man and the back of the store where the woman was.
"I told him he needed to go; I was already on the phone with the police," Adams said.
It got Clarke to head back inside the U-Haul and drive off.
Police said Butler City officers were originally dispatched around 2 p.m. on Saturday to the 100 block of Pillow Street for a report of a possible kidnapping and domestic assault. An officer met with the victim, who said she had been involved in a physical altercation with her ex-boyfriend that began on McGeary Street.
The victim told police Clarke struck her in the face multiple times, causing abrasions to her lips and mouth and tearing out her lip ring. She said Clarke then placed both hands around her neck and began to strangle her, causing her to begin losing consciousness.
According to the victim, Clarke grabbed her by the hair and shoved her into a wall, cutting her left ear. Her shirt was also torn during the assault, police said.
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Clarke was later arrested on multiple charges, including kidnapping, aggravated assault, strangulation, terroristic threats, and simple assault.
NEW: Man accused of beating his ex-girlfriend, kidnapping her, and holding scissors to her during police chase
— Unlimited L's (@unlimited_ls) February 16, 2026
Kenneth Clarke, 53, has been charged with kidnapping, aggravated assault, strangulation, and making terroristic threats
The victim jumped from the passenger side of a… pic.twitter.com/yUwcg7mb2J
The store employees are being hailed as heroes for defending the victim.
Hero store staff straight-up saved her life today.
— nicholas (@nichnyati) February 18, 2026
Butler showing once again it protects its own 💪
Others were thankful cameras captured the whole ordeal.
God bless those brave employees who helped her. And thank goodness for those cameras.
— Patricia McGowan (@LovesLucy) February 18, 2026
The cameras help build the case against Clarke. He's reportedly being held on $250,000 bond.
Shop manager Lisa Albert, who was not in the store at the time, praised Adams for her actions. For her part, Adams said she was scared but wasn't going to let Clarke hurt the woman or Adam's 13-year-old son, who was in the store at the time.
"Scared, scared for her, scared for myself. Scared for my son, my 13-year-old son was behind the counter, and I was like, 'Not today, my kid's here,' because I don't know what [Clarke] is capable of," Adams told the media.
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