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LOS ANGELES – A woman who said she was knocked on the head and stuffed in the trunk of her own car when she tried to assist motorists by the side of a freeway was rescued after calling 911 on her cell phone. 

The woman said she pulled onto the shoulder of the 110 freeway shortly before 11 p.m. Saturday night because she saw people there she thought needed help, Los Angeles Police Lt. Roger Deranian said. 

Instead of accepting her offer of assistance, the people hit her on the head with an unknown object and put her in a car trunk, the woman told police. 

Deranian said he didn’t know whether the woman, whom he declined to identify except to say she was about 35, realized she was in the trunk of her own green Dodge.  

But she dialed 911 and gave a description of her car to California Highway Patrol officers, who passed the description on to police. 

The woman stayed on the phone with the highway patrol for about the next hour as she was driven around, Deranian said.  

Finally she reported that the car had stopped. Shortly thereafter she reported hearing sirens, and at about 12:15 a.m. Sunday police found her car in South Central with its parking lights on. 

The keys were in the car, and the woman was in the trunk, Deranian said. She was taken to a local hospital to be treated for minor injuries. 

Deranian said police had no information about the suspects, except that there were at least two of them.  

He also could not say where the alleged assault took place, or what motivated the suspects to allegedly attack the woman and put her in her trunk. 

“It just reinforces that cell phones are a valuable tool,” Deranian said.