To look at Sandy Vinge today it’s hard to imagine that she is the same woman who survived a kidnapping.
In 2008 Vinge, now 83, was choked unconscious by a door-to-door salesman. Her hands were tied with duct tape and she was thrown into the back of her own station wagon. Over the next 26 hours the suspects beat her badly and used her stolen credit cards.
It was thanks to a couple of Sheriff’s deputies, who stopped the suspects for a traffic violation, that Vinge was freed.
“Well I'm doing pretty good,” Vinge told NBC 7 at her La Mesa home Sunday. “I'm with my family and friends and I'm doing great…Everything’s going pretty well for me. I’m pretty lucky.”
She said the same deputies who saved her life stop by every once in a while to check on her.
“They're my heroes, the ones that saved me,” she explained. “I have lunch with them and the prosecuting attorney…I have lunch with him and his wife now and then.”
Vinge hasn't let what happened to her slow her down. She lives a very active life, belonging to a swing dance club, the Elk’s Lodge and educating other seniors about how to stay safe.
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“They're trusting, old people are trusting,” She explained. “I'm not trusting anymore.”
Vinge said it’s the love and support of her three sons and many friends -- old and new – who have helped her heal after the incident.
She also said she’s grateful that she has more positive wonderful people in her life than she did before that terrible day.
“So it wasn't all bad,” she added. She said after being on the national news people began to recognize her and she "made more friends that way. So I’ve got a lot of friends now.”
