Homeless Man Caught On Camera Trying To Kidnap 3-Year-Old Girl; Gets Arrested

A homeless man in the Bronx, New York, who was caught on camera trying to kidnap a 3-year-old girl from her grandmother in broad daylight has been arrested.

Surveillance footage of the incident showed the man, identified as 27-year-old Santiago Salcedo, wrapping the young victim in a comforter and snatching her from the sidewalk while she was walking with her grandmother outside a BP gas station at the corner of East Tremont Avenue and Baisley Avenue in Schuylerville at around 1:20 p.m. Monday, the New York Daily News reported.

The girl's 65-year-old grandmother ran after Salcedo, while the victim's two younger siblings jumped up and down after seemingly becoming agitated by the incident, according to the outlet.

Salcedo later released the girl after several witnesses jumped in to save her.

"I was sweeping the sidewalk. I saw the lady passing with three kids. All of a sudden, this guy runs across the street, and wraps the little girl in a blanket... He tried to cut out, but a whole bunch of us got involved, so he dropped the little girl," Fermin Bracero, 63, said.

"If it weren’t for us maybe who know[s] what [would have] happen[ed]. It’s crazy. He just came out of nowhere. Not too sure what he was planning to do, but carrying a blanket, either he’s homeless or looking for a kid. That’s what I saw. That’s what my thinking is," the gas station worker added, according to CBS 2.

Salcedo tried to flee from the scene on a scooter, but a witness claimed he eventually left it and walked off.

Police found Salcedo on East Tremont Avenue later that day after investigators reviewed footage of the incident, sources said. He was charged with kidnapping, attempted kidnapping, unlawful imprisonment and child endangerment, according to police.

The little girl was not harmed from the incident, police said. Her grandmother, however, became hysterical over the encounter.

"She started screaming, the grandmother, ‘My little girl! My little girl!’ She was hysterical. It was like a movie, but this is real life. It was crazy," Bracero recalled.

"I'm just glad we helped the little kid," he said.