Guess who stopped a rape last night?! These gals!

Sonia, Monica and Marla weren’t expecting much when the went out for dinner at the weekend. Good food, probably. Cheap drinks, definitely. Saving a young woman from being date raped? Probably not.

In a Facebook post that has now gone viral with over 100,000 shares, Sonia Ulrich details how her and her girlfriends witnessed a man put something in his date’s drink.

She wrote:

Monica, Marla, and I were at Fig at the Fairmont for their delicious happy hour (“Fig at 5.” Treat yourself). I was going on about something and saw Monica staring behind and making a funny face. I stopped. “What’s going on?” After a few second she said “That guy just put something in her drink.”

It was at this point that Sonia and her friends faced the kind of dilemma none of us ever really want to be hit with. Brace the awkwardness and tell the girl? Watch carefully to make sure she doesn’t go home with him? Or ignore it all completely? It was one they decided to face head on.

After a few “Oh god. What do we do”s, I got up to find her in the bathroom to tell her. Warn her. Tell her to get up and leave this creep. Make him drink it. Something.

So, after feeling awkward hanging out by the sinks in the bathroom til she was done, I approached. “Hey! Um, this is kind of weird, but, uh, we saw the guy you were with put something in your drink.”

The response from the strange girl was exactly as you'd expect: Shock, horror and fear. But what Sonia admits she didn't prepare was the answer to the question, "how well do you know that guy?" First date? Second date? Surely third, max.

I was expecting to hear "We just met," but I got: "He's one of my best friends." Shit. Yeah. One of her best friends. They had known each other for a year and a half. They worked together.

After that, they two went their separate ways and back to their respective tables. But the girls made sure it wasn't over yet. They told staff at the restaurant, spoke to the manager, tried to suss out if there was anything they could do to help this woman and stop this man. But at that point there wasn't a heap anyone could do but watch, Sonia wrote.

The poor woman had to sit through 40 more minutes, sitting across from "one of her best friends" knowing that he was trying to drug her. Marla noticed him several times chinking his glass to hers to get her to drink. She played it cool. Mostly, I believed, just stunned.

The staff wanted to jump in and dump the glass, dump him, do something! I was going through fantasies of walking up and demanding he drink the tainted glass of wine. Eventually, they finished up dinner. There was a delay getting their bill "The computer is down" is what the waiter kept saying to him. Then, in walks Santa Monica PD. They say "Come with us" and he doesn't protest. Doesn't ask why. Doesn't seem surprised.

Ultimately, it was the patience and restraint of the three women and surrounding bar staff that was one of the most important factors. Because it gave security enough time to review the footage and nail the man for drugging his "best-friend".

The head of security came by and said that because we notified them immediately, they were able to go back and review the footage from the security camera.

They got him on tape. They had proof of him drugging this girl. They took the glass away as evidence. They kept us for statements. We asked the girl if she had a ride home. "My car is at his place. In his building. We came together." Part of a plan. We were blown away. She was still in shock.

For Sonia, she details in her post that the most powerful moment of the night didn't come from telling the young girl or ensuring the young man was arrested. It was what came after that. The people that approached the trio and thanked them. Thanked them on behalf of the women in their life and the women they knew had endured the same experience.

From every table in our section, from through out the restaurant, people came by to thank us for taking action.

"It happened to my sister...I'm glad I was there to take her home."

"It happened to my roommate at a producer's party. He's still messed up from it."

"It happened to me. At a backyard barbecue."

"It happened to me. At a bar I worked at."

Of course, the trio would be happy with their efforts. Thankful that they caught the man in action before anything violent and abhorrent could happen.

But for the rest of us reading along and sharing it around, it serves as one very important reminder. That bracing the awkwardness and confronting a stranger can be the most important thing we can do for somebody else's welfare and safety.

Sexual violence is something that doesn't just happen face to face. It happens online too. Women share experiences of sexual violence on Twitter.