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ST. GEORGE — What initially was reported to be an attempted kidnapping incident on Wednesday turned out to not be the case, police confirmed Friday.
On Thursday, St. George police officers responded to a suspicious incident that occurred at Target on Wednesday. The initial police report indicated that a woman tried to walk away with someone else’s young child, who was in a stroller. Officers immediately began working with detectives to view video footage and identify the other woman involved.
Police initially requested the public’s help in identifying a woman wanted for questioning in the active investigation.
“I was in the children’s clothing section and I turned around for a second,” Allyson Barlow stated in a Facebook post. “When I turned back around a woman had taken the stroller with (the child) in it and started walking away with him.”
The woman quickly apologized, but wouldn’t take her hand off the stroller right away, Barlow added, noting that the woman then touched her arm and said: “I’m so sorry. I have no idea what I was doing.”
Police stated on Friday that the incident was not a kidnapping attempt.
“After reviewing the security footage and interviewing both the mother and the other woman, it was determined that the incident was not an attempted kidnapping,” St. George Police Department said in a statement.
“Long story short, the two women were in the same area of the store, shopping. The second woman had reached for her what she thought was her cart and mistakenly grabbed the handle of the stroller. As she was letting go; realizing the handle was different than a shopping cart handle, the mother noticed and confronted her. The woman explained what happened, apologized, parted ways and both continued shopping,” the police statement said.
