Mother Horrified After She Says Smiling Woman Tried To Take Her 3-Year-Old Child While Walking
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork)-- Police are looking for a woman who allegedly tried to take a child from her mother in Brooklyn.
The mother and her two young children were heading home from the laundromat around 10 a.m. Saturday on 17th Avenue in Bensonhurst when they were followed by a woman.
According to the mother and witnesses, the stranger was smiling and trying to hold her three-year-old's hand.
"The third time she took her hand, she walked a few steps and I told her, 'What are you doing?'" the mother told CBS2's Steve Langford.
She said the stranger then picked up her little girl and ran down the street.
"I told her, 'Where are you going?' and when I said that she held the girl and she just started to run," she said.
The panicked mother managed to grab her daughter back and snapped a photo of the suspect.
One neighbor, who didn't want to be identified, was there during the attempted abduction. The neighbor said the suspect, described as an Asian woman wearing a red and white checkered shirt and jeans, approached the family from behind and seemed to try to blend in.
"This woman was making believe she was just a passerby just smiling and playing with one of the kids," the neighbor said.
"Everyone's okay, but honestly, we couldn't sleep last night," the mother said.
The young mother, an immigrant from Syria, said she and her two children are packing up.
"I'm moving to Connecticut because I don't feel safe here, I don't," she said.
The suspect was still sporting a smile as she calmly walked away, according to witnesses. She hasn't been seen since.