Oregon — An Oregon woman confronted a stranger who attempted to kidnap her child and punched him in the face.
Scottie Grimes reported that the attempted kidnapping occurred on Tuesday, April 29, as she was about to take her child to preschool.
She stated that around 8 a.m. that morning, she briefly left her 23-month-old daughter, Sonnet, outside in a stroller by the side of her house while she went inside to gather her belongings.
She claimed she was inside her house for less than a minute, but when she came back out, her child was gone. She dashed out into the street, where she noticed a man pushing her daughter’s stroller down the sidewalk.
When she caught up to him, she punched him in the face.
“I just decked him in the face and was like, ‘I’m calling the cops!'” Grimes informed KATU.
Grimes claimed the man fled after she struck him, and she found her child unharmed.
“I was screaming, ‘My baby!'” My baby! “My baby!” the mother exclaimed. “I whipped [the stroller] over to the side to get it away from him in case he tried to make a run with my kid.”
The Portland Police Bureau issued a news release stating that officers arrived at the scene at 10 a.m. They attempted to locate the suspect but were unable to find him. Authorities also said they couldn’t find any security cameras in the area. The suspect remains at large.
According to Portland Police Sgt. Kevin Allen, one of the most impressive aspects of the incident was her ability to physically intervene. “That’s very dangerous, but certainly as a parent, I think any of us would do the same thing.”
Police described the suspect as a Caucasian man in his fifties. He was spotted wearing a black beanie, a surgical mask, a zip-up sweatshirt, and black jeans.
According to KOIN, Grimes posted about the incident on the social media platform NextDoor, where one of her neighbors commented that their daughter had been followed by a man dressed entirely in black the day of the attempted abduction.
Some commenters on Grimes’ post questioned why she would leave her child outside alone, but Grimes clarified that the toddler was still on her property when she was taken.
“I am always guarded, but I believe that most people are good. “When things like this happen so close to home, it makes me doubt that,” Grimes said.
