“Law & Order” Actor George Pogatsia Intervened in a Real-Life Abduction Attempt and Saved a 19-Year-Old Girl (Exclusive Details)

Actor George Pogatsia put his Law & Order experience to good use.

Pogatsia, who appeared on two episodes of Law & Order between 2004 and 2008, was coming home after a dinner out with his wife in Jersey City Heights, N.J. on Saturday, Nov. 1, when he interfered in what he believes was an abduction attempt.

The actor tells PEOPLE that his wife noticed something was awry amongst a group of three people standing near her car on Saturday night. There was “one large guy” talking to two people, a 19-year-old girl and a boy she later identified as her cousin, both of whom “appeared to be really intoxicated.” They told Pogatsia’s wife, who is fluent in Spanish, that they “don’t know this man.”

The large guy was “trying to coax this girl into going with him,” Pogatsia claims. “And so my wife was saying, ‘I’m going to call an ambulance.’ And I said, ‘Call an ambulance and call the police.’ ”

At that point, the man allegedly grabbed the girl and the boy and started “pulling them down the street,” the actor recalls. “So I told my wife, ‘Go inside, stay on the phone with the police, I’m going to follow these people.’ ”

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Pogatsia followed the group to the corner of his street, and said the large man was allegedly telling the girl, “If the cops come, they’re going to call ICE. They’re going to deport you.” At that, he claims she broke free and tried to run away, but the man “grabbed her from the back and picked her up over his shoulder.”

“I said to him, ‘Put that girl down.’ And he ignored me. I repeated, again, I said, ‘Put that f—— girl down right now.’ And he ignored me, so then I got in his face and I said, ‘Put the girl down right now or I’m f——- you up right here on the street,’ ” the actor says of their interaction.

Pogatsia says the man “dropped her like a sack of potatoes and he ran.” Police officers then responded to his wife’s 911 call and an ambulance arrived on the scene. The actor says he followed the man “down the block,” but ultimately let him go as “I felt my presence was better served [with the authorities] to give them the account.”

“All I cared about was that the girl was safe. That was my number 1 priority,” Pogatsia says. “She was just a 19-year-old girl. She was tiny, I mean, less than 5 feet tall.”

He adds, “The guy was definitely [trying to] abduct her. It was pretty scary. He was a big guy — bigger than me — and you know, I have a little girl, I have a wife, I have a couple of sisters … The guy had bad intentions. It was obvious. And I just wouldn’t be able to live with myself, honestly [if I didn’t help].”

Pogatsia was “ready to get physical” if he had to. “I’m happy nothing happened to the woman,” he says.

TMZ was the first to report the actor’s involvement in the alleged abduction attempt, and he told the outlet, “I’m happy I was able to step up and stop it.”