"He attempted to kidnap a child." This was the report received yesterday around 7:30 PM at the operations center of the Carabinieri company in Caivano. With no time to waste, the Carabinieri patrol car arrived at the MD supermarket on Via Atellana. The officers spoke with the owner of the business who called 112, the employees, and several witnesses, and then analyzed the footage from the video surveillance systems.
Investigations revealed that shortly before, two women were at the market with their children and had just finished shopping. They were about to leave with their children, aged 5 and 8, when a man—a forty-five-year-old Ghanaian with several criminal convictions—approached them.
He is visibly drunk, he is in the company of two other people but then he decides to approach the two women who are in front of the sliding door.
"This isn't your son, give him to me," the man says to one of the women, referring to the five-year-old boy. The woman doesn't realize it at first; the boy runs back and forth in front of the market. The man approaches the child and tries to pick him up. The woman's friend also intervenes, stepping in his way. He doesn't give up and tries to grab the boy.
"Mom!" the frightened child screams. At that point, the woman puts her son behind her and enters the supermarket near the checkout counter. The man follows them and even tries to grab the child inside. A cashier intervenes, acting as a shield amid the screams of the two protagonists.
The man steps back, runs away and walks away.
Meanwhile, in front of the supermarket, the child's father arrives. He's outside in his car, and the woman rushes in with her son. She's so shaken that she won't say a word or tell anyone what just happened. The family arrives home, and shortly thereafter there's a knock on the door: it's the Carabinieri, who have just reconstructed the events and who saw everything thanks to the surveillance footage. The woman bursts into tears and recounts those frightening moments.
The officers found the forty-five-year-old still hanging around the market and arrested him. He was transferred to prison and faces charges of attempted kidnapping.
(Unioneonline)
