Jessica Sanderson (left), practising her life-saving skills.

Forget that girl who rescued her family when she realised that the upturned car they were trapped in might explode. Sure, she might have learnt that from Grand Theft Auto, but it was nothing compared to the actions of little Jessica Sanderson, 10, from Medford, Oregon, who took some inspiration from the game to save her family from an even more dangerous threat.

Hit the jump for more on this exclusive report.

According to a statement released by her breathless mother, Kathleen, the Chrysler Voyager she and her daughter were journeying in was ambushed from the side by an aggressive motorist in a battered Ford Taurus, ramming the minivan off of the road and into an embankment. The attacker then leapt out of his car and bolted to the wreck, ready to pillage valuables from those inside the vehicle. Said Mrs. Sanderson:

“He just rammed us straight into a ditch and immediately began to run at the car the moment he’d stopped at the side. I thought we were going to die, and I panicked even more when I noticed Jessie had disappeared from her seat!”

Little Jessie had, in fact, bailed out of the car the moment it stopped and hidden in a nearby bush until the assailant had approached the damaged Voyager. With the coast clear, she ran into the assailant’s still-running Taurus, turned it around and mowed the attacker down at around 25 miles per hour, despite being stuck in first gear. Then, she backed up and hit him a second time, to, as she put it, “be sure.”

Jessica was hailed a hero by her mother and by policemen who arrived at the scene. Local police chief John Hunter remarked that it was “truly moving to see young, easily-influenced minds take justice into their own hands”.

Much like Audrey Plique, who last month saved her family from their overturned Jeep Cherokee having realised it would explode since it was on its side “just like in Grand Theft Auto“, Jessica too said that the game was her favourite and that “running the bad man down was the first thing that came into my head.”

“It seemed to work with the bad guys in Grand Theft Auto so I figured it could work here too, and it did! I saved my mom by playing a strictly-rated computer game! In your face, censorship and overly strict conservative values!”

Jessie was whisked away before reporters could presumably ask her about her curiously intelligent political remarks, how such a 10 year old could have such informed opinions that a writer did not just put into her mouth, and why she was playing a video game intended for people 7 years her senior.

“Oh, that’s not our worry at all,” remarked one reporter at the scene. “We just wonder if she knows what the prostitutes are for.”

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