TOP WINNER – Gideon Gurmu – SP+ Park ATL

The incident happened around 630PM on 3/12/2026. As I was sitting in the company vehicle at the North Hourly exit gates, I noticed what looked like a mother and child coming towards the exit lanes and standing outside NHXT 43. As soon as a vehicle exited from the lane, the mother started banging forcefully on the driver’s side window while pulling on the door handle. The driver looked startled and sped off the lot. At first, I thought they knew the driver, maybe a domestic dispute. But she did it again to the next car that was exiting the garage. Again, the driver drove off and almost ran over the mother. The mom fell to the ground, but she did not appear injured. The child was calm and looked scared and followed her mom with a stuffed toy in her arms. Then I decided to intervene and ask the woman if she needed help, but she would not respond. She just kept staring at me with a crazed look on her face. I knew she was not in a normal state of mind, and I called APD. She was just waiting at the exit, waiting to attack the next car. As I was waiting for APD, I started advising every customer to lock their door and roll their windows up and watch out for that woman. After a few minutes, she started approaching me, so I retreated into the cashier’s booth to de-escalate the situation. They turned around and went into the garage towards the Hourly entrance ramp. I called APD again and told them their new location. I started following them from a distance and observed them going the wrong way down the entrance ramp. When they reached the bottom of the ramp, the mother bent and damaged the entrance gate arm. The mother kept banging on the people entering the garage. I was worried about the small child. At that moment, I did not know their relationship. It could be a case of child trafficking. They kept walking into the street towards the ride share staging area and then turned around and walked back towards door LN1. I was updating APD on their new location too, and I called the senior OPS Russell, and we met up at the NH entrance gates. We followed them into the terminal, and I told Mr. Russell to follow them until APD catches up to them, and I went back to my area. After ten minutes, just out of curiosity, I went back inside the North Terminal to see if APD had found them. As I walked in the “food court” area, I spotted the child, but I did not see the mother. I saw an APD officer nearby and told him about the incident inside the garage, pointing out the small child. As I was talking to him, the child started walking past us, and the officer stopped her and started asking her questions. She told him that the woman was her mother, and she did not know where she went, and she was literally walking around lost. She told him that she was ten years old. She also told me that her mom threw their passports at the North Hourly garage exit. As he was interviewing the child, a female restaurant worker came running towards the officer, shouting in distress that she needed medical help, because she had just been attacked by a “crazy woman”. She said the woman bit her fingers. The officer took everybody, including me, to the precinct to write our statement. Later, I found out that the woman who attacked the restaurant worker was the child’s mother. So, while she was attacking people in the terminal, the ten-year-old girl was left alone with their luggage. She is lucky that something tragic did not happen to the child. When we got to the precinct, we saw the mother in handcuffs in the back of the office. Mr. Russell and I wrote our statements. I went back to the NH exit and found both passports and went back and gave them into the Police precinct.

Cindy Coleman – Hallmark Aviation

I was stranded at Atlanta for 3 days after BA plane was cancelled and had very poor service i.e. no hotel room given for 2nd day etc. I met Cindy on the smokers bench outside Holiday Inn and she kindly asked me (I’m British) my story and that of my travelling companions she then went the extra mile and contacted her contacts by phone and email and followed up with me what a star thank you most sincerely Cindy you are a shining example of hospitality and professionalism thank you for caring.

Coral Jones – ATL Volunteer

Coral went so far above and beyond. I had left my rental car key in my coat pocket. She showed me tremendous kindness and empathy, understanding the time crunch of my situation she offered to take my key back to the National rental office so I wouldn’t be late for my flight. An absolute superstar!