In Santa Monica, California, a group of three women went to a bar for happy hour and girl talk. As the trio was discussing the events of their day, one friend couldn’t help but notice what was happening over the other woman’s shoulder and took immediate action, leaving a stranger in the bathroom sick to her stomach.

Sonia Ulrich and her two close friends, Marla Saltzer and Monica Kenyon, heard great things about the Fig restaurant located in the Fairmont Hotel in the beach town. As they enjoyed their drinks and dined on an expensive cheese plate, Sonia was gabbing on when she felt her friend’s attention slip away to something else going on behind her. The look on Monica’s face suddenly changed and Sonia demanded to know what was going on when the woman said eight terrifying words that had her running to the bathroom.

A couple sitting in the vicinity of the three friends were sharing a bottle of wine when the woman excused herself from her date to use the restroom. In her absence, Monica saw the man she was with slip something into her drink. “That guy just put something in her drink,” she said to Sonia. However, what the friends would soon find out about the pair, would make a bad situation even worse.

“It seemed like a first or second or third date,” Sonia recalled in a social media post . “After a few ‘Oh god. What do we do’s’, I got up to find her in the bathroom to tell her. Warn her. Tell her to get up and leave this creep. Make him drink it. Something,” she wrote.

Fig Restaurant in Santa Monica, California (left), Sonia Ulrich (right)

The women waited by the sinks in the bathroom, for the stranger on the date to come out of her stall. They awkwardly approached her explaining that they just saw the guy she’s with slip something into her wine, in a very clear attempt to drug and eventually sexually assault her, according to the women’s claim. The victim was in shock and went numb with the realization, admitting that this wasn’t their first date. In fact, she’s known this guy for over a year and a half, works with him, and even referred to him as one of her best friends.

Sonia (middle) with friends Monica (left) and Marla (right)

Having this complete stranger’s back to protect her against rape, the women devised a plan to nab this man. The woman returned to her date at the table and continued to have a painful conversation with him for 40 minutes with the drugged up drink in front of her that she avoided like the plague, ordering a water instead. With the help of the waiter and hotel security, they were able to arrange an arrest in that time, with proof of what he did on surveillance video.

Just as Monica saw, the surveillance showed the guy pull out a little black vial and put it in her drink, then tried to get her to sip it as they talked for almost an hour, after she was informed of what had happened while she was in the bathroom. However, thanks to these strangers taking action with what they witnessed, she was spared sexual assault, which was going to take place at his house, where the woman would have had to return to get her car.

These three friends were heroes this day to a stranger, simply by being brave enough to insert themselves on a situation many people may not have. We live in a society where not enough people get involved in other people’s business, which creates an environment for bad things to happen to innocent people. Simply by saying and doing something when they saw something, they sparred this woman from suffering the consequences of rape for the rest of her life.