A quick-thinking mother became a hero earlier this week when she pretended to be the mother of someone else: a little girl who was in the middle of a possible kidnapping.

The school girl, 12-year-old Amy Martinez, had been walking to class at Lathrop Intermediate School in Santa Ana, California on Wednesday when a woman who she described as "homeless looking" caught her up in a bear hug and started pulling her away from the school building.

Amy tried to get away from the intruding stranger, but she was too small to resist the grown woman's strength. She continued to flail her arms around and yell at the woman until the youngster caught the attention of a woman who had just finished dropping her own child off at school.

The good Samaritan saw Amy's movements and "knew that something wasn't right". She then confronted the kidnapper, said that she was Amy's mother, and demanded that she be released.

Amy's rescuer then took her to school and called the police. The 12-year-old says that she considers the anonymous woman to be her hero.

"I was thinking, ‘Oh my gosh, I'm going to live,'" Amy told KTLA.

(WATCH the video below)

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