A Florida woman has been arrested after literally, if briefly, kidnapping a toddler from a yard last month, according to Florida police.
Broward County officials initially charged Pamela Monslave, 39, with one count of confining a child under the age of 13 without parental consent. A court later found that there was probable cause to sustain a kidnapping allegation.
She has finally released body-worn camera footage from her arrest.
The incident occurred on November 25 in Hallandale Beach, a medium-sized city on the coast.
The defendant allegedly abducted the boy and fled with him. She allegedly returned the boy when two witnesses informed his mother, who was inside the house at the time, of what had occurred to her son.
“I can’t imagine what act can cause more extreme fear, distress in a parent than having somebody, not knowing who, go into their property, their fenced-in property and removing their 3-year-old child,” a prosecutor told a judge at a bond hearing, according to a courtroom report by Miami-based Fox affiliate WSVN.
According to Miami-based NBC station WTVJ, at the conclusion of the hearing, a judge ordered the defendant jailed without bond.
WSVN captured and published footage of Monslave’s arrest this week from the Hallandale Beach Police Department.
“He was outside,” she can be heard saying in the footage. “He was naked. He was like — with a shirt. Everything was naked and I asked for the people around to call police and nobody would call police. And I told the little boy ‘Where’s your mom?’ and he said no.”
An officer responded to the explanation by asking: “So where’s the little boy now?”
To which Monslave replied: “Well, they were — I got the little boy and everybody was like, ‘Don’t get the little boy’ and I’m like, ‘I gave it back to the mom.’”
Later, when quizzed as to where the child was found in the first place, the woman expresses something not entirely unlike confusion.
An officer asks: “Where’s the playground?”
Monslave replies: “Near the — outside the — the — outside the — when the mom came out I gave it back.”
According to police, the defendant and the toddler’s family had no prior relationship.
“Make sure you pay attention to your kids, your surroundings, make sure you know your neighbors and your neighbors know you,” Hallandale Beach Police Capt. Megan Jones said in a statement. “This is an example of ‘know thy neighbor’ and those neighbors were able to help prevent this child from being permanently taken.”
The Broward County Jail is detaining a slave without bond.