Thuy Phan/Nguoi Viet
FOUNTAIN VALLEY, Calif.– When Huntington Beach resident Jenni Harvey saw the news of what happened to kidnapped driver Long Ma, she wanted to help.
Long Ma received generous donations from people around the country who felt sorry for the senior citizen held at gunpoint. (Photo: Thuy Phan/Nguoi Viet)
Ma, who works as an independent driver to supplement his income, answered a call to pick up three passengers on the night of Jan.22. However, he didn’t know they were escaped inmates Hossein Nayeri, 37; Bac Duong, 43; and Jonathan Tieu, 20. They had escaped earlier in the day from the Central Men’s Jail in Santa Ana.
After taking them to various locations without incident, they then held him at gunpoint and took him hostage. Ma then spent a week with the inmates as they continued to evade authorities, not knowing if they were going to kill him or not.
In the end, Duong, who took pity on Ma, left the other two inmates– who were hiding in San Jose– and headed south to turn himself in. Duong surrendered without incident at a friend’s auto shop and Ma escaped unharmed. Nayeri and Tieu were caught days later after a vigilant citizen spotted them at a McDonald’s in San Jose.
Despite what he went through, Ma returned to work immediately in order to make up for lost fares during his week in captivity. His story touched Harvey, who then created a GoFundMe account to help the senior citizen out financially.
“The story touched me,” Harvey, 44, said. “I was thankful he was safe and when i read the article that he was back at work already, I thought maybe he needed to take some time off or take a moment to reflect on what happened.”
Over the course of 28 days, donations poured in from across the U.S. with over 580 shares of the GoFundMe page. Hundreds of people donated to the campaign and also left encouraging messages for Ma.
Maria Tempert wrote,” Mr. Ma you have some Amazing Earth Angels watching over you. Together with their help they’ve led me here today. Know we Care! And we will pray for your recovery and protection.”
After fees were deducted, the funds were released into a trust created for Ma by his lawyer Hoang Tu.
“I want to sincerely thank Jenni Harvey for setting this up for me,” Ma, 72, said. “I’m so happy. I also want to thank my attorney Hoang Tu for overseeing this trust for donating his services to help me. This will go a long way for me.”
“I am really gratified to see the community came together to show their support,” Harvey said. “Hopefully he will be able to take some time off and recuperate.”
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