A shocking video captured the moment that a homeless man tried to abduct a child off the streets of New York City. A grandmother was walking down the street in the Bronx on Monday (October 11) afternoon when a homeless man draped in a blanket approached them.
As they neared an intersection, the man grabbed one of the children, wrapped them in the blanket, and started to run away. The woman tried to chase after him and screamed for help.
Luckily, two Good Samaritans, Fermin Bracero and Katherine Garcia, happened to be nearby. They confronted the man, and he put down the young girl before fleeing the scene on a scooter.
"When he grabbed her, I thought it was a joke," Bracero told WNBC. "When she said 'He's taking my child away,' I reacted and went towards him."
The girl's mother spoke to WABC and said that the children were not harmed following the kidnapping attempt.
"The kids are okay thank god they are too young to fully understand or grasp what happened," she told the news station.
Police managed to track down the man, identified as 27-year-old Santiago Salcedo and took him into custody. He was charged with kidnapping, attempted kidnapping, unlawful imprisonment, and child endangerment. He remains in police custody.
The girl's mother said that she does not want to see Salcedo jailed.
"He's not mentally okay," she said. "I just want him to get help. I don't want him to go to jail because he's not mentally okay."