Mom battles stranger for baby

Duo who tried to snatch 1-year-old still at large

A mother with her 1-year-old baby in a sling fought off a stranger who tried to snatch the boy from her back Thursday morning near West Palm Beach, authorities said.

The mother — who fastened her child to her back with a maroon cloth tied around her waist — on Thursday recalled in horrific detail how she and her child came under attack just feet from her front door.

She was vacuuming her car when she was startled by a woman standing behind her, authorities say. She only could see the eyes of the stranger, who wore a hood to cover the rest of her head.

“She covered her face and then went behind me and started pulling at my baby,”

the mother said. “I couldn’t believe it. I was in shock.”

But the baby’s mother successfully fended off her attacker.

“She couldn’t get him because I had him fastened tightly [in the sling on my back],” she said. “I started screaming, but no one heard me.”

The assailant escaped in a car driven by another woman. Now, the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office says both women are wanted in connection with the attempted kidnapping. The Sun Sentinel isn't identifying the mother to protect her because the assailants still are on the loose.

As the woman described how she prevented the attack, she stopped and began to sob.

“She was pulling at me from behind and I tried to defend ...,” she said in Spanish, holding back tears. “Sorry.”

Authorities said it happened at 9:46 a.m. in the 2800 block of Nokomis Avenue, in the Westgate neighborhood. The attacker had an accomplice who waited for her inside a car, the Sheriff ’s Office said.

“The other woman, inside the car, started yelling at [her partner], but she was yelling in English so I don’t know what she was saying to her,” the mother said. “I thought they were going to come back for my baby ... that they may have weapons.” The mother said the woman’s accomplice drove up to the stop sign on her street, then reversed quickly to the front of the house to pick her up.

They were in a silver four-door Honda, authorities said.

The mother said she was so horrified, she didn’t know what to do after the car drove away.

“I called my boyfriend and he’s the one who told me to call the police because I didn’t know what to do,” she said. “Thank God, nothing happened to us. I only ask God to protect us and bless us, and bless those people — they don’t know what they’re doing.”

The assailant is described as heavy set, white, about 5-foot-2. She was wearing a black long-sleeved T-shirt, black pants and a black hood covering her entire head, where only her eyes could be seen, the Sheriff’s Office said.

Her accomplice, who stayed in the car, is described also as heavy-set, white, with light brown hair and was wearing dark sunglasses.

The Sheriff’s Office said the motive for the attempted abduction is unknown.

Authorities ask anyone with information to call Crime Stoppers of Palm Beach County at 800-458-8477.