Foiled kidnapping: Good Samaritan saves 12-year-old girl from abduction

Claudia Hernandez Diaz, 34, was arrested in Santa Ana, California, on the morning of February 21 after a Good Samaritan successfully stopped Diaz from kidnapping a 12-year-old girl who was on her way to school.  Young Amy Martinez was headed to Lathrop Intermediate School that morning around 7:45 a.m. when she told police that Diaz approached her with outstretched arms, scooped her up in a bear-hug and began dragging her away. KTLA in California reports Amy as saying that as soon as the woman grabbed her, Amy began kicking and screaming for help.

“She told me in Spanish not to cry, but I wasn’t even crying,” Amy said.

Fortunately for Amy, there was another woman in the immediate area that who had just dropped off her own child at school.  That woman approached Diaz and the screaming Amy, told Diaz that she was Amy’s mother and then told the woman to let the child go.  The Good Samaritan then drove Amy to school and called 9-1-1.

Police arrived at the scene of the attempted kidnapped shortly thereafter and took Diaz into custody.

Amy said she considers the woman who came to her aid a hero who saved her life.

“I was thinking, ‘Oh my gosh, I’m going to live,'” the girl said. ~ per KTLA

The Ocean County Register quoted Santa Ana Police Cpl. Anthony Bertagna as saying that the Good Samaritan wishes to remain anonymous and added that thanks to that woman, “We believe because of her actions she prevented the girl from being abducted.” Bertagna said that the woman was driving by Amy’s location when she saw the child in peril and that the woman sprang into action.

“Her motherly instincts kicked in,” Bertagna said.

The good Samaritan pulled into a parking lot at the northwest corner of McFadden Avenue and Main Street, rolled down the window of her car and confronted the kidnapper, who was still holding on to the frightened girl.

“She looks at the victim and asks, ‘Are you OK?’ ” Bertagna said, noting that it took about five seconds for her to formulate a rescue plan.  “Then she begins yelling, ‘She’s mine. Give her back.’”

When Diaz released the child, the Good Samaritan drove Amy to school and called the police. The school principal contacted Amy’s mother, Sandra Martinez, to relay the fact that Amy had just been saved from a potential kidnapping.

The mom was grateful that Amy was rescued, but was dismayed that no-one else on that busy Santa Ana street stopped to offer assistance to a screaming child. Martinez told Fox News that Amy would now be driven to school. Diaz was jailed on suspicion of kidnapping a child under the age of 14.

~ Written by: Richard Webster, Ace News Today   /   Connect with Richard on Facebook and Twitter