Today on Unfiltered Stories, we are talking with Allison Heagle about her experience with human trafficking and how she managed to get out and get her life back. Allison wants to spread awareness of the dangers of human trafficking and how it can happen to anyone.
Follow Allison's journey:
IG : @asmiledh
TikTok : @allieinsane
#UnfilteredStories #HumanTrafficking #Survivor
Thank you for watching Unfiltered Stories! We offer a platform for our guests to speak openly about their life stories and journeys, shedding light on the challenges they faced and the resilience they've shown.
Our mission is to raise awareness about survivors by delving into their stories, exploring the impact of their experiences, and how they've managed to heal and rebuild their lives.
By sharing these stories, we aim to break the silence surrounding those challenging memories and create a compassionate environment.
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Follow Allison's journey:
IG : @asmiledh
TikTok : @allieinsane
#UnfilteredStories #HumanTrafficking #Survivor
Thank you for watching Unfiltered Stories! We offer a platform for our guests to speak openly about their life stories and journeys, shedding light on the challenges they faced and the resilience they've shown.
Our mission is to raise awareness about survivors by delving into their stories, exploring the impact of their experiences, and how they've managed to heal and rebuild their lives.
By sharing these stories, we aim to break the silence surrounding those challenging memories and create a compassionate environment.
🌅 FOLLOW US 🌅
Facebook âž® https://tinyurl.com/UnfilteredFB
Tiktok âž® https://tinyurl.com/UnfilteredTT
Snapchat âž® https://tinyurl.com/UnfilteredSN
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NewsTranscript
00:00My name is Allison and I'm a survivor of human trafficking. When I was 15 years old, I was your
00:06average angsty, hate your parents teenager. I didn't want to listen to mom and dad. Everything
00:11mom and dad said was either a conspiracy theory or wrong. That led into a lot of what got me
00:16into
00:16the trouble. They said no drugs. I said, well, of course, I'm going to go do drugs. The main person
00:23who got me into the human trafficking, he came into where I was working at the time, which was
00:26Subway. One of my co-workers was 21 and he had a tatted up friend. In my naive 15-year
00:34-old brain,
00:34I thought he's 21, so his friend must be 21 because all my friends were my age. We exchanged
00:40Snapchats. He mentioned he had a studio in his house. He mentioned that we could drink and hang
00:45out in the studio. And within a week, he had me snuck into his house. When the trafficking started,
00:52it still waited a couple months. It started at first showing up to work and being like,
00:56make me a sandwich, honking his horn nonstop, controlling. And I'm naive 15. He was threatening
01:01to have people beat me up. That's terrifying. I didn't want mom and dad to find out. And
01:04it slowly got progressively worse. It turned into, you're going to meet up with this person,
01:09have sex, they're going to give you cocaine and money. You're going to bring it back to
01:11me. Like, I convinced myself that, not that I was into it, but that it was a part of my
01:16lifestyle. It progressed very quickly in my memory. I mean, the first day we hung out, he had
01:22got me blackout drunk and statutory assaulted me. I don't remember it. And every time we
01:26hung out, no, we won't do anything. And next thing I knew I was undressed. So from day one,
01:30it was very forceful and controlling, but it was about two months into it where it started
01:35having the exchange with other individuals, which is what sex trafficking is defined as
01:39with the exchange of goods or services for a sexual service. And then it started turning
01:45into more money than drugs. And then it just started turning into, I wasn't even part of
01:49the money drug exchange, but I knew it had been happening. So I think they just slowly
01:53eased me into it so that I wouldn't be like, whoa, whoa, whoa, what the heck do you mean?
01:57Go meet up with this person and you're getting paid for it. Because any average teenage girl
02:01probably would have questioned that. My parents, they slowly started to notice eventually you
02:07can't hide your addiction. It's pretty easy to notice when your daughter's not sleeping for
02:11days. When they primarily had notice is they would take my phone sometimes.
02:14And they would read every single message. And they stopped one day and said,
02:19what do you mean you were raped? I spilled out just a little bit. I was just like, oh,
02:22I was raped by this guy. They, within five minutes, had found his address where he lived,
02:26asked me to lay out of his house, had the cops at our house. My parents cared, but I was
02:30very good
02:31at covering it up. And every time they'd catch me, I'd give them a little and hide a lot. They
02:35were
02:36like, you're going to rehab. And I was like, I don't want to go to rehab. You should know I
02:40don't
02:40have to go to rehab if I don't want to get sober. Didn't matter. They called me third week at
02:44the
02:44rehab and said, we're moving to Arizona. Their mindset, it was getting me away from the people,
02:47places and things I knew into a place I knew no one. So unfortunately, moving to Arizona in some
02:54ways was, yes, helpful. In other ways, it was not. It wasn't thought through my trafficker originally.
03:00They didn't know the full extent of what he was doing to me. And he's originally from Arizona that
03:05he had, the second I moved out here, moved out here with me. He would contact me every once in
03:09a while
03:09and had people come groom me. My parents didn't know at this point a week before I was 18. I
03:14had
03:15ran away. I said, you know what? Screw you. I'm almost 18. You can't take my phone. I'm done. I
03:19hate you. And it was off to the streets is a very young, naive 17, almost 18 year old girl.
03:27It was a
03:28new beginning for me of a lifestyle. There was no sobriety. I left because I wanted to get high
03:33within a week, no longer wanted to get high. The people who had convinced me to leave had been
03:39sent to groom me. The main tactics they used were you are my daughter's age. I would never harm my
03:45daughter. I would take care of you like my daughter. I didn't think in my mind there could
03:49be a bad father out there. And within 20 minutes of being with the first man that was supposed to
03:55be
03:55like there's a caretaker, basically like a pimp is what it could be known as. But who's in charge of
04:01you, who you love, who you're attached to. And the first guy that was sent after me like had me
04:05in
04:05his lap. He was like, do you care if we become more than just friends? And I was like, yeah,
04:11whatever. Because in my head I was like, okay, but I'll still get drugs. Like I knew he wasn't
04:15going to touch me because I wasn't 18 yet because Arizona is big on that, but wasn't smart about it.
04:19In Arizona, I was being trafficked from the week before I was 18 until like a couple months before I
04:26was 19. It's just in those couple months of being trafficked, they were the worst. They were the
04:30most brutal. And the day I escaped, I was going to be killed or sent to Mexico. There were multiple
04:35times I did try leaving. And I was allowed to walk away. I had walked away many times. I'd
04:41walked for days on end. I had Stockholm syndrome. I didn't really know what was going on. I just
04:45knew I was running for these people that wanted to enslave me. But I didn't really think that was
04:50happening because I was tripping. I was crazy. I was imagining it. Unfortunately, some law enforcement
04:54was in on it. So I had gotten to a point where nobody could help me. I was just shattered.
04:58I didn't
04:58know where to go but back to my traffickers. I was just at such a point where I remember
05:03saying every day I was like, I want to die. Or I want to find out that I'm in a
05:07mental hospital
05:08right now in a padded room and crazy. I was like, because there is no way this stuff is
05:13not happening to me. Getting out of the trafficking and closing that chapter wasn't just the one
05:19and done ordeal. I got arrested that gave me three, three and a half, four months to get
05:25my brain off of drugs away from these people and with women going, girl, pay attention to
05:30what the hell is going on. Snap out of it. Do you realize what's going on? And it really
05:36just got me when I got out. My parents had picked me up and they knew it wasn't going
05:40to last. I was like, I'm going to stay sober. Like it lasted exactly a week. I thought I was
05:44going to go out for a drink with one of the men that I had met during the time period
05:47I was
05:47being trafficked who couldn't have been involved because he had a daughter my age and he wouldn't
05:52let me go home that night. And I intended on just having a drink. And at this point
05:56they were done trying to hide it from me. I had just gotten to a point they weren't
06:00drugging me anymore. I knew what was going on. They were getting really mad at me because
06:05I kept saying what was going on. And I was in a hotel room. I said, I'm a part of
06:10this.
06:10They snapped back and I was like, you wouldn't be reacting so negatively if you were innocent.
06:16And they started talking about, okay, we're going to kill her, send her to Mexico. I'm sick
06:19of this. Back a couple of days, someone came into an Airbnb to install cameras. I don't
06:23know why still. He thought I was somebody's daughter until he looked around and realized
06:26what was going on. He sent me his phone number and said, popcorn, if you ever need anything,
06:32if it's an emergency text popcorn. I was in the hotel and I went into the bathroom with
06:36my wifi phone and I said, Hey, thank you for that popcorn yesterday. It saved my life. Sent
06:41him the address, deleted the text, came out. They asked for the phone. A situation had occurred
06:45to where I could get out of the room. And they said, leave with no tears, get out. But
06:50the streets were lined with two vehicles waiting to pick me up to bring to Mexico. And this
06:54is God. There was one civilian on the street. Nobody was out. It was 9, 10 AM in the morning.
06:59There was one man on the street. And I went up to him and I was like, please let me
07:03use
07:03your phone. He didn't want me to touch his phone. And I was like, please let me use your
07:06phone. And he was like, are you okay? And I was like, no, but please let me use your phone.
07:11I'm holding my composure. I could barely walk. I had infection so badly. I had to use
07:14guys so badly. My kidneys were failing. And I called this guy and I was like, I'm no longer
07:19at that hotel. He's like, I just stopped there. Where are you? And he pulled onto the street
07:23and got me. I stayed with him and his wife for two days. For my dad's birthday, I went home
07:28and
07:28they convinced me to stay home despite my fears of my traffickers hurting them and coming to attack
07:34us. That was the last day of the ongoing trafficking. I have had assaults since then. And it's
07:40something someone said at a trafficking walk that was at the safe house with me recently that
07:44we escape. But I don't think people realize that it's something we have to be aware of for the rest
07:49of our life. We're never fully, truly away from it. We're never truly 100% safe. Because there is
07:56always that chance that we say the wrong thing, that we don't watch the right door and our lives
08:03are gone. I never thought I'd make it out at all. And I never thought I'd be functional. I was
08:07working
08:07a job and one thing would be out of place. Like the dog would be in the wrong door at
08:11the wrong time
08:11of the wrong day. And I'd be like, my traffickers are here. Like I was in a psychosis for months.
08:16And I
08:17never thought I would heal. It doesn't discriminate. It does not. It could be someone in your household. You
08:22have no idea. I was straight A student, cheerleader, working full time job, normal girl in a pretty rich
08:29community. Educate yourself because if you can just educate yourself on the signs, how to keep yourself safe and how
08:35to keep
08:35others safe. If you see a random stranger in public that looks like they're in danger, you can save one
08:39life. Signs to look for someone that's a victim of trafficking is they're coming into lots of
08:45something they like, like drugs, objects, money. They're infatuated with someone typically older,
08:51losing connection with friends and family, like disconnecting, isolating. In my case, I like stopped
08:58talking unless I was around certain people. I went from this outgoing, confident, loud girl to this
09:03never talking shy. I'll just get whatever he's getting girl. I decided to share my story on
09:10social media. I've been trying to share it since I escaped the day I escaped. And overnight I gained
09:16about 20,000 followers. You don't ask for that. You just wake up and I was like, oh, people are
09:20hearing
09:20my story. Now what? Being able to get that platform is something I've dreamed of. I don't care about the
09:25money I never have. I just want to help people. Like that's my passion. And that's where my heart's at
09:30now. And I just want more people to know by the time I'm not here. My name is Alison Heagle.
09:35I'm a survivor of
09:36human trafficking. Remember that you're priceless and there's no price on that human body of yours. It is 100%
09:42yours. Just remember that fact.
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