An actor who usually plays the bad guy on screen got the chance to be a real-life hero when he stopped a potential abduction near his home in New Jersey.
George Pogatsia is one of those actors who often is cast as a possible suspect or seedier character, as he has done on “Law & Order” and “The Sopranos.” But he will never forget the real crime he thwarted outside his Jersey City home.
“This guy was just insistent on trying to get this girl to go with him,” he told NBC New York.
Pogatsia said he saw a 19-year-old girl stumbling down the street with her cousin, visibly intoxicated, along with a strange man who looked like he was about to kidnap her.
“She was under 5 feet [tall] herself. This guy was probably about 6-2, and he took them by the hand and pulled them down the street,” said Pogatsia.
On 911 tapes obtained by TMZ, Pogatsia can be heard telling the operator that the man was running down Hancock Avenue, and then he threatened the man, who Pogatsia said was dressed all in black.
“Where you going mother-----? Where you going?” he can be heard saying.
It was his wife who first noticed something wasn’t right, and she told George to follow them.
“He said to her ... ’don’t let them call the police because they will detain you.’ Basically he was threatening ICE would come and deport her,” said Yolanda Pogatsia.
George said when they got to Bowers Street, the man hoisted the teen girl onto his shoulder. That’s when Pogatsia knew things had escalated for the worse.
“That’s when I demanded to the guy, I told him to put the girl down, demanded that he put her down,” said Pogatsia.
On the 911 recording, Pogatsia told the operator, that both women said they didn’t know the guy.
“He dropped her like a sack of potatoes ... then he ran back this way and and I chased after him,” the actor said.
By then, police had arrived and the girl was OK, but the man got away. Pogatsia is being hailed a hero, even getting a letter of appreciation from President Donald Trump.
“I usually play a bad guy, you know? But it’s a lot more rewarding to be a real life good guy,” said Pogatsia.
