A near-kidnapping inside a Bronx apartment building has left a 2-year-old boy and his mother terrified about stepping out of their home, the boy’s grandfather said Saturday.
“No, Mommy! I cannot go outside. I’m scared,” the grandfather overheard the tot tell his mom Friday, just three days after the bizarre clash with Darlyn Thomas, who was arrested on attempted kidnapping charges Thursday.
The harrowing encounter has left the 23-year-old mother on edge, said her dad, who wanted to remain anonymous.
“Sometimes she cries,” he said. “I ask what happened. She remembers the face of the lady.
“She’s scared,” the concerned father said.
It remained unclear what sparked the Tuesday evening encounter by the laundry room of the E. 180th St. building near Vyse Ave. in West Farms, about two blocks from the Bronx Zoo. Thomas lives in the building, which is located in NYCHA’s Lambert Houses development, cops said.
On Friday, the Bronx district attorney’s office declined to prosecute Thomas. A DA spokeswoman confirmed the decision, but declined further comment.
NYPD released surveillance images of a woman who they said attempted to take a 2-year-old boy from her mother at a Bronx apartment building.
Thomas, 32, was reported heard screaming, “Give me the kid!” as she tried to take the child from his mother near the building’s laundry room. The young mom didn’t live in the building, but came to refill her laundry payment card at a vending machine inside.
The vending machine to refill laundry cards was broken in victim’s building, which is nearby, her father said.
The victim told police she was entering the building when Thomas allegedly followed her inside. A few moments later near the laundry room, Thomas allegedly grabbed her by the arm and demanded she hand over the child.
“She say, ‘Gimme the kid!’ two times,” the young mom’s father said. “And my daughter say, ‘Why? No!’”
Panicking, the victim scooped up her child in a bear hug to protect him from Thomas, the grandfather said.
“When [Thomas] take [my daughter’s] arm from my grandson, my daughter took it back hard,” he said.
Bronx District Attorney Darcel Clark.
The mom was ultimately able to break free from the stranger and run off with the boy, cops said. But Thomas allegedly pursued them, trying to grab the tot’s hand.
Entering the lobby, she ran past building resident Shaquille Ranger and bumped into her.
“[The mom] was screaming, ‘Help! Help!’ and that’s when I really grabbed her [and put her in the laundry room],” Ranger, 32, said. “If you close the door, once you go in, you can’t really open the door unless you have a key.”
Thomas was right behind the mom and child with a chilling look on her face, Ranger remembered.
“Her eyes was looking directly at the baby,” the good Samaritan said. “Not looking at the mother, not looking at us, [just] the baby. She didn’t even listen to what none of us was saying: ‘What are you doing? What are you doing?’”
A few moments later, Thomas took the elevator to the 12th floor and disappeared. No injuries were reported.
NYPD released surveillance images of the woman, who was quickly recognized as Thomas, cops said.
Thomas wasn’t home Saturday. Her boyfriend, who witnessed the tail end of the encounter, called the entire ordeal a “misunderstanding.”
“It’s very bizarre because that’s not her,” said the man, 33, who wished not to be named. “She knows right. She knows that there’s cameras. She’s not stupid. So that’s definitely not her.”
The boyfriend said he had gone to the lobby to help Thomas with the laundry when “there was a big commotion,” he recalled.
“I didn’t know what was happening,” he said. “I was like, ‘What the hell is going on?’ Everybody was saying, ‘She’s trying to take my kids.’ I was like, ‘What?’ And then that’s when I grabbed my girlfriend and we went upstairs.”
Thomas, he said, has a 6-year-old child, which makes the allegations against her even more unfathomable, he said.
“She’s an amazing mom,” he said. “She takes care of her kid.”
Thomas hasn’t returned to the building since her arrest, but the child’s grandfather said he fears her return.
“Today it was us, but tomorrow maybe it is another child,” he explained. “It’s not good.
“It’s very, very dangerous,” he said.