A brazen caught-on-camera creep tried to kidnap a 3-year-old girl from a Queens day care center by claiming to be the child’s’s grandfather, police said Thursday.
The unidentified man showed up at the Children’s House Montessori School on Leavitt Street near Carlton Place in Flushing around 4:50 p.m. Monday and told staffers he was there to pick up a toddler enrolled in the day care, cops said.
He claimed he was the girl’s grandpa, that her father would be 20 minutes late, and asked to take her himself, authorities said.
But school employees found that he was not listed on the parents’ emergency contact list, and turned him away, cops said.
The would-be kidnapper said he would wait for the child before giving up and fleeing on foot, police said.
The young girl remained secure inside the school and was not removed, cops said.
Eerie footage released by the NYPD shows the man, wearing a tan shirt, khaki shorts and a camouflage baseball cap, speaking with someone in the building before that person directed him down the hallway.
He had not been arrested by late Tuesday morning.
Anyone with information on the near-abduction is asked to call the NYPD’s Crime Stoppers Hotline at 1-800-577-TIPS (8477) or for Spanish, 1-888-57-PISTA (74782).
The public can also submit their tips by logging onto the Crime Stoppers website at https://crimestoppers.nypdonline.org/, on X @NYPDTips.
