WANT THE BABY!
Ma fights off drunken maniac’s kidnap try in Queens
IA terrified mom got into a fierce tug of war with a drunken man who tried to grab her newborn baby and stroller on a Queens sidewalk “with a force and an anger that I can’t even describe.”
“He asked me three times (for my baby) and I told him to back away because I would not give him my daughter,” new mom Blanca Aucanshal the Daily News.
Aucanshala, 28, noticed the drunken stranger when she entered her baby-sitter’s home near 43rd Ave. and 111th St. near Flushing MeadowsCorona Park about 8:30 p.m. Thursday.
When she emerged with baby Kayla, she saw the man urinating on a car outside. “Another drunk vagrant,” she thought to herself.
Then the man approached. “He attacked me from behind and I thought he was going to rob me,” said Aucanshala.
“Give me the baby!” the man screamed three times as he wrapped one hand around her back and tried to yank the stroller away with his other, Aucanshala said.
The pair fought over the stroller until Aucanshala spotted a bystander and screamed for help. The Good Samaritan ran to her rescue and scared off the would-be kidnapper — but not for long.
“The man helped me out of good faith,” she said. “But the [suspect] just hid behind a car and followed me up the street.”
As the stalker lurked behind her, Aucanshala made a dash for a nearby 99-cent store. She called the cops as the fiend dashed into the store behind her.
The scared mother bolted toward the back of the store, buying some time until police arrived.
The sound of sirens ultimately scared off the man, she said.
“I really am shocked. It’s my daughter. I am trembling,” Aucanshala said. “Imagine what it’s like to be a parent and have your child taken away from you. It’s something horrible that I cannot explain.”
Aucanshala, a single mother from Ecuador, moved to the city to raise her family. She never thought a man would try to kidnap her baby.
“‘Why the baby?’ I said. “Just take my phone or purse. Those are things that I can earn back. But not my daughter. That is something sacred that I can’t get back, and it’s my first child.”
Investigators believe the man was intoxicated when he tried to take the infant.
Police on Saturday released surveillance images of the suspect in the hope that someone recognizes him. The images were taken from an eatery on nearby Roosevelt Ave. after the attempted kidnapping, officials said.
The man is described as 5feet-5 with brown eyes, black hair and a thin build. He wore a green hooded sweatshirt, dark-colored pants and red sneakers.
Surveillance video seen by The News shows the suspect stumbling into the nearby Stop One convenience store before he approached Aucanshala.
“He came in and he left. He almost fell down,” said a store clerk, who wished not to be named. “He was drunk! They’re going to find him. He probably don’t even remember what he did.”
“The police say they’ll give $2,500 [for his capture],” the clerk said. “I’ll hold him here. Hell yeah!”
The NYPD Crime Stoppers program pays up to $2,500 for anonymous information that leads to a suspect’s arrest.
“I want him to be where criminals belong because I may not be the only person that this has happened to,” said Aucanshala. “I wonder how many mothers this has happened to. I want him to be arrested.”
Anyone with information about the case is urged to call Crime Stoppers at (800) 577TIPS.