Ananda Mallory was surprised to hear an unfamiliar voice when she called her boyfriend Friday on his 37th birthday.
What that stranger said was even more unsettling.
"I said, 'Hi babe,' and on the other end I hear an unfamiliar voice and they just tell me, 'Sorry, I had to take your boyfriend or husband's truck,'" Mallory said.
Her boyfriend, middle school teacher Joshua Ross, had just been carjacked by a man who led authorities on a dangerous pursuit in Orange and Los Angeles counties.
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It was at a Corona Shell station where Ross was carjacked by a man, who then took Ross' beloved pickup truck on a dangerous armed pursuit. Ross and his girlfriend had plans to meet for dinner later, but plans quickly changed.
"The whole time if I had only gotten gas last night this never would have happened," Ross said.
Inside Ross' truck were all of his belongings, including his cell phone, which Ross' girlfriend says she called during the chase. Mallory says for 30 minutes she tried to keep the driver on the phone so his location could be tracked. Mallory, who is also a teacher, said she spoke to him in a humanizing way, the way she does to her students.
"I always tell my kids -- calm body, calm mind," Mallory said. "He started telling me 'None of that matters, the police are going to kill me. This is my last day here.'"
The man assured her that Ross was not hurt, Mallory said.
Mallory said she heard the gunfire as the suspect shot at pursuing officers. She said she also held her breath when he came up quick on an intersection where school kids were crossing the street.
"Right away, I got into teacher mode, I said 'Don't you dare, don't you dare. If your kids watch this they need to know this is what you care about,'" Mallory said.
In the end, the driver was taken into custody and no one was seriously hurt.
Ross hasn't been able to return to work as a teacher and his family has set up a GoFundMe titled "Teacher was carjacked on his Birthday!" to help him get a new car.
He's grateful for his life and his girlfriend's heroic actions.
"She was a hero. I do truly believe once he was in certain situations he would have reacted differently had he not been talking to her," Ross said. "She's good at calming me down."
