EXCLUSIVE: Upper East Side Father Fights Off Man With Fake Eye Who Tried To Snatch 5-Month-Old Son
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- An Upper East Side father claims a man tried to snatch his 5-month-old son from his stroller while they were out for a walk Sunday afternoon.
CBS2's Valerie Castro exclusively reports Gregory – who doesn't want to give his last name -- was taking his son out for a walk around 4:30 p.m. near 72nd Street and First Avenue when he was approached by a strange man who seemed to zero in on his son in the stroller.
"It wasn't a situation where someone is admiring your child," Gregory said. "It was incredibly aggressive and he was going to grab my child."
Gregory said the man, who was wearing a hooded sweatshirt with the hood up over his head, made a move for his baby boy.
"I had no idea who he was. He didn't engage me to say cute kid, cute baby, or anything like that," Gregory explained. "He just went to grab my son.
He then elbowed the man in the face.
"He was way too close," Gregory explained. "He was within a hand of my son and that was just not going to happen."
Gregory said when the man came toward him, he warned him to back off with a threat.
"I unpolitely said to him, 'If you come near my son, I'm going to kill you,'" he said.
Gregory then noticed something unusual about the man – he had a fake eye.
"He had a fake eye, I'll never forget it," he said. "The eye was elongated like a cat's eye and it was yellow."
The man quickly left, but Gregory hopes telling this story serves as a reminder to other parents to pay attention and always be on alert.
"Just be very careful," he said. "You never know what people's intentions are and unfortunately there's very bad people out there."
