Police said a homeless woman snatched a 2-year-old son from his babysitter while she was buying him ice cream Thursday in Escondido.
“He is the light of our lives, just the happiest little 2-year-old,“ parent Emily Ramirez said.
Two-year-old Ralph Ramirez's happy place is Grape Day Park. He’s with his nanny at the park four days a week.
But it was there, just after the lunch hour, that his parents realized their worst nightmare.
Get Southern California news, weather forecasts and entertainment stories to your inbox. Sign up for NBC LA newsletters.
“She came from behind him and like wrapped her arms around him and started saying like, 'This is my baby,' trying to take him,” Ralph’s father Bryan Ramirez said.
Ralph was standing between his babysitter and an ice cream cart when his parents said the suspect grabbed him and began to run away.
“It’s just petrifying that she physically had my son and could have taken off with him,“ Emily said.
The nanny told Emily the suspect was never far from them. That 30 minutes before Ralph was grabbed, she was pacing back and forth watching Ralph and the babysitter. Escondido police said this woman is known to them and known to frequent this park. Emily thinks she’s been watching Ralph for several days.
The suspect didn’t get far before another parent grabbed her from behind, Ralph’s babysitter got him loose after a short tug of war with the suspect.
Saturday Top Stories
“What if that tug of war would have ended differently? What if there was a getaway car waiting for him, which I am sure there could have been?“ Emily said.
Court records indicate Escondido police arrested 36-year-old Talia Wilson a block away from the park. They charged her with kidnapping, robbery and being under the influence of a controlled substance.
“Thank God for our heroes, the babysitter and the bystander who helped our nanny. Without them, this could have been a very different story," Emily said.
Ralph is Ramirez’s youngest child, for now, they have a third coming very soon. He was born during the pandemic and is just now getting out in the world.
“We’re lucky he is very unscathed emotionally and physically," Bryan said.
As for the parents, they won’t be back.
“It’s just a cautionary tale for parents whose kids are on the slide and on their phone. It is so easily done. Things happen in a split second and the world we live in today, it’s so different."
In part of a statement, Escondido Police told NBC 7 that the suspect being under the influence may have been a contributing factor. Police added that the public should not fear going to Grape Day Park and that there has not been an increase in criminal activity there.
