A 10-year-old girl in Ohio escaped a would-be kidnapper, thanks to her quick-thinking little brother, police said.
The children’s great-grandmother, Nita Coburn, 69, told police she had been dropping off a relative at the emergency room at Atrium Medical Center in Middletown, Ohio, on Friday when the terrifying incident occurred.
Coburn parked in front of the hospital entrance so she could walk her relative inside while her great-grandchildren, Skylar Weaver and her 8-year-old brother Chance Blue, waited in the car, according to police.
Seconds later, Coburn said she heard the children screaming and ran outside. That’s when she saw someone driving away in her car with her great-grandchildren in the back seat.
Surveillance video shows Coburn running up to the car, grabbing the driver’s door and being dragged for a few feet. Meanwhile, Chance tumbles out the open back door on the passenger’s side and manages to pull Skylar out with him as the car speeds away. Neither of the kids appeared hurt.
“I started hearing the kids screaming and I ran to them,” Coburn told WCPO. “All I could see was my great-grandbabies in the back seat. ... Every time I think about it I want to cry.”
Skylar told Fox 19 that the driver pushed her brother of the car, but grabbed her hoodie to keep her inside.
But Chance wasn’t about to leave his big sister. He managed to free Skylar from the thief’s grip and pull her from the moving car with him.
“I was acting in the moment because I didn’t want my sister to get hurt,” Chance told ABC’s “Good Morning America” in an interview that aired Monday.
Coburn, who sustained minor injuries, said she had no idea her great-grandchildren escaped as she was being dragged.
“It’s the most morbid feeling in the world,” she told WCPO. “No one needs to feel that fear.”
Police stopped the stolen vehicle a few blocks away and arrested Dalvir Singh, 24. He was booked into Middletown County Jail on charges that include kidnapping and grand theft. He was held on $200,000 bond and was scheduled to appear in court on May 3.
“This little guy is a hero,” police Chief Rodney Muterspaw said of Chance in a statement. “No question. He pulled his sister out of the car with no concern for his own safety. That is incredible at his age.”