I was very pleased to read that an alert New Mexico man prevented a tragedy yesterday.
The 6-year-old girl was taken by a stranger from a playground right outside her South Valley home.
. . .
An alert neighbor says the man tried to coax the little girl into his van.
“The child was being resistant to his enticement, and that is what caused him to get out of the car and actually push her into the van,” said Officer Robert Gibbs with the Albuquerque Police Department.
The neighbor then jumped into his own car and chased after Phil Garcia, the suspected kidnapper, while calling 911.
Officers say Garcia realized he was being followed and tried to drive onto the mesa to lose the neighbor. Instead he ended up crashing about a mile and a half from the kidnapping scene.
Garcia ran.
The neighbor jumped out of his car and pulled the little girl from the van.
Police showed up seconds later and caught Garcia on the mesa.
Officers say the neighbor is a hero and without him this story could have ended horribly.
There's more at the link.
I shudder to think what might have happened to that child without the neighbor's intervention. I hope the authorities will do something to publicly recognize this man for his actions; but, even if they don't, I know one family, and one little girl, to whom he'll forever be a hero.
Peter
2 comments:
I'm from N.M. Now for the rest of the story. It looks as if the guy doesn't speak much english. Our esteemed gov. could end up taking his drivers license. No good deed goes unpunished
Don't worry, the neighbor will soon be sued civilly by the kid's family for mental anguish and trauma resulting from the wreck...Which wouldn't have occurred had the neighbor not been in pursuit.
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