Texas man pleads guilty to kidnapping teen whose ‘Help Me’ sign led to Southern California rescue

LOS ANGELES (AP) — A Texas man has pleaded guilty to kidnapping a 13-year-old girl who was rescued in California last year when a passerby saw her hold up a “Help Me” sign in a parked car. The U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Central District of California says 62-year-old Steven Robert Sablan of Cleburne admitted in a plea agreement that he sexually assaulted the victim while driving her from Texas to California. The girl was rescued in July in Long Beach — south of Los Angeles — after a passerby alerted police after seeing her hold up the piece of paper with the handwritten desperate plea for help.