Auburn Hair Salon Employees Save Man From Burning Vehicle

PLACER COUNTY (CBS13) — Several employees at a hair salon saved a man's life after they noticed smoke billowing from his car.

The man was found outside the Hair Depot along Highway 49 on Friday.

Employees say the man parked his car right in front of the salon and then set it on fire. They used a salon chair to bust open the car window and a pair of hair shears to cut him loose.

"I could see him rustling a little bit so we just thought he was sleeping, maybe drunk," said Jamie Thompson.

She didn't think much of the red car parked outside the salon when she arrived at work on Friday, until she realized it was on fire.

She says panic set in as they realized the doors to the car were all locked, so she and a couple of other employees grabbed a chair from inside the salon and used it to smash open a window.

Thompson says they pulled the man out as smoke continued to pour out of the car. Then she noticed the man had something tied around his neck. They used a pair of scissors to cut hair.

"We realized he had two zip ties around his neck and each of his limbs like really really tight. so we went and got our scissors and cut them off of him," she said.

Once police arrived, Thompson says they found a gas can in the car, as well as some socks that had been filled with padlocks.

Thompson says the man is an ex-boyfriend of an employee at the salon, and she believes he had intentions of hurting others besides himself.

"There was a contraption that he had made. Not a bomb, but something that could have exploded with gas, so it was pretty scary," she said.

The Placer County Sheriff's Department says the man was not seriously hurt, and is now facing felony charges for stalking and arson. he will also have a psychological evaluation.