DETROIT (WXYZ) — A brave young girl came to her sisters rescue after a suspect attempted to abduct the child from a southwest Detroit neighborhood. If it wasn’t for the older sister's quick actions, things could have turned out a whole lot worse.
The girls were playing catch outside near Wheelock and Lafayette Sunday afternoon when surveillance video captured a man approaching the girls and chasing them into a backyard.
"This guy started yelling, 'hey little girl – hi," said 11-year-old Amie, who's last name we aren't revealing.
Surveillance video from a nearby party store captured the terrifying moments a 5-year-old girl is nearly abducted in broad daylight.
"I was like, oh no she’s going to get taken," Amie said.
In the surveillance video, the 5-year-old is in a pink coat. Amie is dressed in all black. It was just before 3:30 p.m. Sunday. Surveillance video captures a man at the top of the screen who begins to walk across the street.
"Next thing you know this guy is darting into our backyard," Amie said.
Police say the girls ran into their backyard. Officers say the man then grabbed the 5-year-old and tried pulling her over the fence.
"I started yelling at him," Amie said. "I started screaming and he basically got scared and handed my little sister back to me, and then we ran inside and locked the door."
Police say the suspect is a young white man, 15 to 20 years old with a brown goatee. He’s roughly 5 feet 7 inches tall. He was wearing blue jeans and what looked like two phone charging cords around his neck, a red one and a green one. Amie says she’s just glad her little sister is OK, but has a message for other young kids:
"Don’t follow them if you don’t know them," she said. "That’s what I told my little sister."
If you have any information on this incident, call Crime Stoppers at 1800-Speak-Up. Remember, you can remain anonymous
