Last Updated Dec 27th, 2019 at 1:49 pm

A California woman was able to gain the help of McDonald's employees so she could escape a dangerous situation after mouthing "help me" in the drive-thru line.

At around 2 p.m. on Christmas Eve, a woman entered a McDonald's in Lodi, California, and asked an employee to call 911. She also provided a license plate number of the car she was traveling in and asked to be hidden.

After using the bathroom, she attempted to order some food but the suspect she was traveling with, Eduardo Valenzuela, told her to use the drive-thru instead.

As the woman entered the drive-thru she mouthed "help me" to an employee, who then notified the manager. The manager instructed the staff to hold up the drive-thru line in order to give police time to arrive.

"It was one of those fight-or-flight kind of things," the employee said. "They just took over and they didn't hesitate."

After police arrived, the woman told deputies that Valenzuela had been violent with her and threatened her with a firearm.

Police located the firearm in the trunk of the vehicle and charged Valenzuela with criminal threats, stolen property, and illegal possession of a firearm.