A Franklin, Tennessee, mother hitting a thrift store with her kids was in for a scare last week, after turning her back from her daughter for a split moment, only to have a stranger try to snatch her away, according to reports.
The mother, identified as Mattie, told ABC station WRKN in Nashville, Tennessee that the whole incident took place very quickly.
Mattie told the station she and her daughters, ages eight and 10, were enjoying their time together while shopping in a Goodwill store on Murfreesboro Road in Franklin on Friday.
Then things took a frightening turn.
"We were just kind of browsing Goodwill for fun," the mother said.
She explained that the younger daughter was reading a book while sitting in the cart, within arm’s reach, and the older daughter was looking at shoes.
For a moment, Mattie turned her attention to her 10-year-old daughter, when all of a sudden, she heard the eight-year-old start crying for her.
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"My one daughter just grabs my arm and screams, ‘Mom, Mommy,’ and I turn around and there’s a man next to her and he’s like, ‘Oh, I shouldn’t have done that. I shouldn’t have done that. I’m sorry,’" Mattie told WRKN.
At one point, the strange man looked at the girl and told her, "Next time you should yell louder for your mom," Mattie said.
"She was like, ‘He was trying to take me. He was trying to take me,’" the Franklin mother said, adding that her daughter was "distraught."
The man would not leave, according to Mattie, making things awkward. A little while later, Mattie said, she asked her daughter to tell her exactly what happened.
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"He walked over to me and he went ‘Shh’ and then he started pulling the cart away," the mother said her daughter said.
Mattie also said her daughter told her the man started to pull the cart away.
Representatives with the Goodwill Industries of Middle Tennessee, Inc. did not immediately respond to questions about the incident.
The incident was reported to the Franklin Police, and the suspect was found hours later, though according to the news station, no arrest was made.
"He admitted that he was there and he had scared the girl, but at that point there wasn’t anything arrestable at the moment. I’m just glad to know they have all of that on record," Mattie told WRKN, reminding them that the incident should be a reminder for parents.
"Keep your eyes on your kids all the time. Don’t get too comfortable, anywhere," she said.
