Good Samaritans foil stranger trying to abduct toddler walking with grandma in NYC
A stranger tried to abduct a 3-year-old girl walking with her grandmother on a Bronx street Monday — but was foiled by good Samaritans, cops said.
Santiago Salcedo, 27, approached the 65-year-old grandmother, who was with the little girl and two infant grandsons, around 1:20 p.m. at the corner of East Tremont Avenue and Baisley Avenue in Schuylerville, police said.
The creep then allegedly threw a comforter around the tot, picked her up and tried to flee with her down the block, a police source said.
The grandmother’s screams alerted people nearby, and they confronted Salcedo, who put the child down, the source said.
A worker at a nearby gas station jumped into action when the girl was taken.
“I was sweeping outside, and all of a sudden this lady passed by with three kids… the guy grabbed her from there. I’m like, for me, I thought it was family joking around,” said Fermin Bracero, 63.
But the worker quickly found out that the threat was real.
“The grandmother was screaming loud, ‘He’s taking the little girl!’ Then I and a couple of people went to run after him,” he said.
The creep then let the girl loose and started walking back to his scooter by a cemetery on Tremont.
“Then he took off with the scooter,” he said. “Maybe a quarter of a mile or less, (then) he left the scooter… Then just kept walking like nothing. He was homeless. That was crazy.”
Police caught Salcedo later Monday. He was charged with kidnapping, attempted kidnapping, unlawful imprisonment and endangering the welfare of a child.
In July, a man tried to grab a 5-year-old boy who was walking with his family in Queens, cops said. Shocking video showed the horrifying July 15 abduction attempt near Myrtle and Hillside Avenues in Richmond Hill, in which the family pulled the boy out of his abductor’s car.
