Brittany Diggs, a Birmingham nursing student, was abducted at gunpoint last Tuesday night and subjected to a trail of terror before making a dramatic and courageous escape.

Confronted with a handgun as she returned home from work, Diggs was first ordered to drive to multiple locations as her abductor attempted to rob others. When that plan failed, out of growing desperation, he forced her into the trunk and made several more stops trying to obtain quick cash using her ATM card.

At each step along the way, the assailant continued threatening Brittany’s life. In an interview with NBC’s Today show this morning, Diggs said her assailant badgered her at every turn. “The whole time he’s driving, he’s, like, just, he’s yelling at me from the front seat, ‘You’re lying. I know you have something. Give me your money.’”

While her abductor was at an ATM inside an Avondale convenience store, Brittany remembered a Facebook video about all modern cars being equipped with an emergency release handle in the trunk. Smartly using the light on her insulin pump to find that release, she pulled it just after her kidnapper returned to the car, and just before he exited the parking lot.

Leaping from the trunk to the pavement as the kidnapper drove off, Brittany sprinted into the store and hid while the attendant called the Birmingham police. Investigators confirmed Diggs’ account shown in the now viral video of her harrowing escape.

Yesterday, a Go Fund Me page was created for concerned citizens to donate to Brittany’s monetary losses and counseling. As this story is published, over $18,500 has already been raised.

The kidnapper remains at large, and anyone with information about this crime should call the Birmingham Police Department at (205) 254-7777.