By Nicole Acevedo -
NBC News
Authorities managed to find a missing 16-year-old girl after she caught the attention of a driver using hand gestures popularized on the social media platform TikTok.
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According to the Laurel County Sheriff's Office, in Kentucky, the girl was inside a silver Toyota car when the driver saw her using hand signals known on TikTok “to represent violence at home: I need help , domestic violence ".
After recognizing what the signs meant and seeing that the teen "appeared to be in danger," the driver called 911, the sheriff's office said in a statement.
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The alert led to the arrest of James Herbert Brick, 61, of Cherokee, North Carolina, on Thursday afternoon, as he was driving near a Kentucky interstate.
The teenager found inside the car Brick was driving had been reported missing by her parents in Asheville, North Carolina, Tuesday morning, Laurel County Sheriff John Root said in a statement.
The girl also told authorities that she had traveled with Brick through North Carolina, Tennessee, Kentucky and Ohio, according to the statement.
Investigators also located a phone in Brick's possession that "allegedly depicted an underage woman in a sexual manner," Root explained.
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Brick faces charges of illegal incarceration and possession of material depicting sexual performance by a minor over 12 but under 18, according to the sheriff's office.
He is being held at the Laurel County Correctional Center on a $ 10,000 cash bond.
The sheriff's office did not describe the sign used by the teenager, but a hand gesture first introduced by the Canadian Women's Foundation last year has been adopted by many around the world who need to discreetly ask for help or show they are in danger.
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The gesture consists of raising the hand, with the palm facing out, with the thumb inserted and then bending the fingers downwards.