Spanish press reports the attempted abduction of british child on the Costa del Sol. The mother-of-two revealed how the 11-year-old stepped in when an African man tried to lure the two-year-old British holidaymaker into his van with the help of a cat.
The housewife, who lives in Marbella, told how after taking photographs from his van, the man in his 30s held the animal out to be stroked.
But just as the toddler started to pet the cat, her son Ben pulled him away.
“He is pretty clued up and realised what was going on,” she revealed.
“He grabbed the little boy’s hand and said ‘no, no, no’ before running back to us.
“You can say he has became a bit of a hero.”
While police have not been able to identify the culprit, a Nigerian man was charged last week with the attempted snatch of a Spanish two-year-old in Málaga a fortnight ago.
In the terrifying incident in the Rosaleda shopping centre, the 32-year-old man, whose name was given as Oduwa O, tried to grab the toddler out of his grandmother’s arms.
Incredibly, there have already been 22 reported abduction attempts of children across Spain so far this year, with Amy Fitzpatrick in Mijas and Mari luz in Huelva still missing.
“It is terrifying that there are people out there operating on the Costa del Sol,” said the British housewife, who has asked not to be named.
“My daughter is so pretty with blonde waist-length hair. I am now obviously very careful to never let them out of my sight.”
She and her husband, who commutes back to the UK to work, had been dining with friends on the terrace of Rosmarino restaurant in June, 2007.
While they ate, their son, 11, and daughter, 8, ran around playing in the square with half a dozen other British children.
It was about 10pm and still light, when a man had driven up in a white locksmith’s van and parked just out of sight of the square and fellow diners.
“This man, an African in his 30s had a camera and started taking photographs of the children, and in particular tried to get this two-year-old to come over to the van,” said the mother-of-two from London.
“He was using a cat to get the kids to come closer.