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Airline agent named Miracle credited with saving two teens from human trafficking

An airline employee may have saved two lives.
Customer Service Agent Denice Miracle and Deputy Todd Sanderson of the Sacramento County Sheriff's Department Airport Bureau

SACRAMENTO, California -- Denice Miracle was at her ticketing counter at Sacramento International Airport late last summer when two teens walked up to check in for their flight.

But Miracle said she noticed something was off.

"It seemed to me as if they were running away from home,” Miracle said. “They kept looking at each other in a way that seemed fearful and anxious. I had a gut feeling that something just wasn’t right.”

According to American Airlines, the two teens — ages 15 and 17 — weren't with an adult, had no identification and had tickets that were flagged as fraudulent. The tickets were one-way, first class flights that were booked with a credit card that was in neither of their names.

Miracle told the girls they wouldn't be able to get on the flight, and called the Sacramento County Sheriff's airport bureau and explained what was going on.

According to the airline, the two girls told officials a man they met on Instagram named "Drey" invited them out to New York for the weekend to earn $2,000 to do some modeling in music videos. When deputies called the number for "Drey," the call failed and, and when they checked his Instagram account, his social media profiles were deleted.

The teens were apparently shocked to find out that the two tickets they were attempting to use were one-way because they were told they were round-trip.

The girls returned home safely after deputies called their parents to tell them about the apparent attempt of human trafficking.

"[Miracle] is a testament to the critical role our frontline team members play each and every day in the operation and the lives of each person they come in contact with," said airport General Manager Aleka Turner.

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