'I heard screaming': WATCH terrifying moment man attempts to snatch 4-year-old girl from mother's side

'The mom was in here she was very hysterical.'

A 4-year-old girl was dragged from a Victorville cellphone store just feet from where her mother stood.

LOS ANGELES, CA (Catholic Online) - As seen in the CCTV video, the child was playing with something on the wall near the store door.

Her mother stood in line with an infant in her arms, not paying attention to the playful 4-year-old. All seems well on the surveillance camera until a man walks to the door.

It happened within seconds.

The man reached through the open door and grabbed the girl's arm. She immediately fell to the ground and her mother rushed outside.

The struggle immediately came to an end when the man ran off, chased by the patron who stood in line ahead of her.

The terrified woman pulled her daughter, who was crying and clutching her mother's thigh, into the store, where they cried and clung to each other.

NBC Los Angeles reported the store owner, Stella Moriel, initially believed the encounter was a domestic dispute.

"I heard screaming," Moriel described. "I thought they were arguing with each other at first. When I came from behind the counter I asked what was going on.

"The mom was in here she was very hysterical. Her daughter was very traumatized, just clinging on her, wouldn't let go. Both babies were crying."

When neighbors heard the commotion, they jumped in to run the would-be kidnapper down.

"He was smiling like it was some kind of joke or something," neighbor Miguel Macias claimed.

According to The Sun, the would-be kidnapper escaped but was later apprehended by police, who identified him as 24-year-old Terry Ransom.

Ransom was charged with kidnapping and child cruelty.

Investigators reported the child was shaken but uninjured.

---

'Help Give every Student and Teacher FREE resources for a world-class Moral Catholic Education'

Copyright 2021 - Distributed by Catholic Online