Posted on 08/13/2007 9:12:56 AM PDT by Stoat
The woman attempted to grab the baby but was fended off by the girl's mother
A mother bravely fought off a couple who reached into her pram and attempted to snatch her four-month-old baby daughter by punching one of the would-be abductors in the face.
The female attacker yelled 'get the baby, get the baby' as the pair tried to rip the girl from her pushchair.
But the couple fled empty-handed because the tot was strapped into the pram and were finally driven away by the 30-year-old mother.
The mum, who lives in Leigh, was pushing the pram across a pelican crossing near Hulme Road in Leigh, near Wigan, at 8pm when the couple struck.
The woman first attempted to grab the baby, but as the mother fended her off the man reached into the pram.
He than ran away after being unable to release the baby, at which point the woman again tried to steal the baby.
The ordeal finally ended when the woman ran off after the mother punched her in the face.
Neither the mother nor her child were hurt, but the mother was left traumatised.
Detective Sergeant Graham Rigby, of Wigan CID, said: "This was a deeply disturbing incident in which a couple tried to snatch a baby from a pram.
"Thankfully the mother had strapped her baby into the pram and had the wherewithal to fight off the would-be abductors.
"She put up a determined fight against the couple and managed to fend them off, but she was left understandably horrified by what happened.
"We now need to hear from anyone who either saw what happened, or who saw this couple before the incident.
"We need to catch these people before they put another mother through a similar ordeal."
Police released a description of the couple they are looking for in connection with the incident.
The man is white, about 5ft 7in, in his 40s with a muscular build and very short black hair.
He was wearing black trainers, black jeans and a black leather jacket which covered most of his face.
The woman was also white, around 5ft 6in and in her 40s.
She wore black trainers, dark green combat trousers and a black jacket. Both offenders were wearing black knitted gloves.
Detectives want to hear from anyone who saw a couple fitting their description arguing in Atherleigh Way, near to Sainsbury's supermarket shortly before the incident.
Anyone with information can contact Wigan CID on 0161 856 5307 or Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.
A true funny. Our none too bright neighbor bought a whole chicken once and asked my grandfather how to cut it up to fry it. He told her to draw and quarter it. A few minutes later she brought him a penciled drawing of the bird...
Tell that chick to blow it out her shorts!
I'm delighted that you like it. Please feel free to use it yourself if you feel so inclined.
This is a story that could have turned very ugly, with a horribly different ending, Im so happy it is what it is.
Agreed. I wonder how many moms don't strap their child in to their stroller securely because it has high sides, the child is sleeping and they are just going a short distance?
And how many American moms leave home with their child without even the most minimal means of legal self-defense such as pepper spray?
And I further wonder how many American moms might be unaware that firearms courses designed specifically for ladies are available at a nominal charge in most any American community ?
WOW Id not heard of this. This is in my home town...Ive been in Hulme road. Wow.
THIS mom rocks!
::chilling, but she is supermom::
Good work by the Mother, too bad she wasn’t armed.
What is a pelican crossing?
Between this mom and the one who strangled the raccoon:
Bad Guys 0
Moms 2
I'll be taking one this fall to get my CCP.
A month or so ago my 9yo came flying into the house screaming about a raccoon in the barn, where her cats live. I went out with her and attempted to retrieve the .22 we keep in the furnace room out back.........it wasn't there. I was not happy, and my husband was out of town, which is why she came for mommy not daddy. One of the neighborhood toms we feed was chasing the 'coon out of the barn when we got in there.
I was real comfortable with that .22, but when I called my husband he told me it wasn't in the furnace room because it needed repair. He dealt with the 'coon withthe 12guage on Friday when he got home, but by then it had already killed 2 of the new kittens. I'm now as comfortable with the 12guage as I am with the .22 (which has since been repaired)
“What is a Pelican Crossing?”
I too assumed it had naught to do with birds, so i asked Wikipedia. Here’s what they say:
“is a type of pedestrian crossing featuring a standard set of traffic lights with a push button and two coloured lamps for pedestrians using the crossing. The official name is Pelicon crossing (short for PEdestrian LIght CONtrolled crossing) but pelican is consistent with other crossing types (see below) named after animals and, in particular, birds. The term pelican crossing is used only in the United Kingdom, although, of course, similar traffic control devices are in use throughout the world.”
TC
I really don’t get the Faber/Ezos nazis. Spoiling them is giving them crap they don’t need. Being close to them is American.
That’ll teach ‘em. Don’t mess with momma!
I had 3 little stair step boys, and I too resorted to the little leash thing to keep the youngest with me when we went places like the mall. He was headstrong and had no compunction about running off into a crowd.
I used a front pack with them, but I doubt I was doing it by the time they were 16 months, not because I wouldn’t have loved to, but I suspect by then they were way heavy! (of course, I was still nursing the last one at that age, and some people thought that was sick—and no, I didn’t do it in public).
Oh, btw my little headstrong youngest is now 26 and works for the State of TX and is probably more conservative than I am. So, I know I did something right! ;)
susie
From time to time there will be a story about a newborn kidnapped from a hospital’s nursery by a frustrated or depressed woman who then tries to pass the baby off as her own. This is the first incident (other than a for money kidnapping) that I can recall in which a man participated. Perhaps when they’re caught we will learn the motives.
Tough tomcats you’ve got in your neighborhood. Coons can weigh up to 35 pounds.
There was a horrible case in Delaware in '85 or '86 where the man participated. The kidnapped baby was found and safely recovered, unfortunately that child and a slightly older sibling wound up being raised by their grandparents, because they became orphans the day of the kidnapping. The deranged woman who claimed the baby as her own had murdered the mother and father.
20 years ago and it still bothers me to no end. It happened only about 2 miles from where I lived, just days before Christmas.
Hey, there was a grandmother that fought off a cougar too!
:)
I love those tomcats.
My husband said the coon weighed well over 30 pounds, and he would know. He hauled it out of the barn after he dispatched it. There’s a serious problem with rabid ‘coons in this county, so he picked it up with a shovel and hurled it into the woods on the other side of our creek........he would not bury it here.
I suppose if a man is living with a woman who is that psycho, he believes he must please her.
And believe what she tells him..........and apparently he was not the only one who believed her about the pregnancy. No one questioned her when she showed up with the baby........at least not at first.
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