Good Samaritan In Lakeland Beaten Up By Father Of Toddler He Was Trying To Help

Mistaking a Good Samaritan for a kidnapper, the parents of a 2-year-old beat up a man who they thought was attempting to abduct their daughter.

The incident was reported from Lakeland, Florida when the toddler got separated from her parents during a softball game Saturday at Southwest Sports Complex.

The stranger, who was at the game with his friends, saw the baby walking around the complex alone. Concerned, the man approached the girl and walked with her in an attempt to locate her parents, Daily News reported.

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According to the police, the parents were informed by people at the complex that they had seen their daughter with an unknown man walking towards a playground near the parking lot of the complex.

The parents assumed the worst and thought the man was trying to kidnap their daughter.

Serg. Gary Gross of the Lakeland Police Department told CNN that the girl's father and some of his friends approached the man, took the girl from him and attacked him. "They grabbed that child and took him from behind and knocked him to the ground and started kicking and hitting him," Gross said.

The CNN report stated that an eyewitness confirmed to the authorities that the stranger was only trying to help the girl find her parents. He later signed a waiver of prosecution, saying he wouldn't press charges against the father for beating him up as he was a parent of two kids himself. According to the police report, the father was very unsatisfied upon being told that the stranger would not be arrested. The family took to Facebook and shared his name, his profile and pictures of him and his kids, calling him a sexual predator. Soon, his information was everywhere. One post said:"I can only imagine the fear that was in them but I'm so glad they were able to act fast and keep their little girl from being taken. Let's make him go around on here to help keep all babies safe from this piece of s***,” CNN reported.

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Lakeland Police then in another Facebook post asked the public not to share the defamatory post and that people posting false information could be held liable.

The man, who was wrongly accused of kidnapping, reportedly has left town with his family after receiving threats, fearing for the life of his children. When the girl's father was asked by ABC Action News whether he regretted beating him up, he replied: "No, not at all. You don't pick somebody's kid up in that direction, towards the parking lot whether you were going towards the parking lot or not.”

According to Gross, the parents still think that their daughter was being kidnapped and are unwilling to listen to anyone who claimed otherwise.