ATLANTA — A 27-year-old man is recovering after he told Atlanta Police he was kidnapped while on a jog in the early morning hours Tuesday.
The victim, who we are not identifying out of regard for his safety, said he left out on a run around 2:30 a.m. outside Elan Madison Yards apartments in southeast Atlanta. It's an area between Memorial Drive and I-20.
The man said at some point, a black Cadillac Escalade pulled up with three men who jumped out and surrounded him.
He said they put a cloth over his mouth that smelled like a "mixture of vinegar and acetone." The man said he lost consciousness and when he woke up he was in the back seat of the vehicle.
The man said he started to fight the men in an attempt to escape and was pistol whipped by one of the men.
At some point he was able to escape but it's unclear where he managed to get when he was out of the vehicle.
Later that morning just after 7:30 a.m., Cherie Atkins was walking out of her gym at the The Bryant at Buckhead Village apartments along Pharr Road.
Atkins said she noticed a man walking in the opposite direction toward her as she was walking back to her apartment.
"As I get close to him he says, 'Can you please call 911? I was kidnaped,"' Atkins explained.
She called 911 and started relaying the man's story back to the dispatcher.
"He started crying and he was like 'Why would they do this to me, why would they do this to me?,"' Atkins said.
She said he had multiple lacerations on his head.
"Oh my God. He's in bad shape," she told the 911 dispatcher.
Atkins said the man's face was swollen and he was bleeding. She said some of the lacerations over his eye were deep where he told her one of the men pistol-whipped him.
She also noticed it appeared he ran out of his shoes.
"I asked what happened to your shoes and he looked down like he didn’t realize he didn’t have shoes on and he’s just like I don’t know," Atikins explained.
While there are still a lot of questions as to what happened to this man, one things is for certain, he was appreciative Atkins walked into his life.
"He said you'd be surprised how many people I asked to call 911," she said.
Anyone with information on this case is asked to call Atlanta Police or Greater Atlanta Crime Stoppers at 404-577-TIPS (8477).