May 15, 2008 8:02 am US/Eastern
Feisty Grandmother Saves Girl During Kidnapping
CORAL SPRINGS (CBS4) ―
"I ran down after him and when he got to the front door I said, 'put her down'. He had a knife, which he could have used on me."
Coral Springs grandmother Mary Cimino recounted investigators as to how she stopped 18-year old Timothy Schlafer from taking her 11-year old granddaughter from the family's home.
Schlafer allegedly broke into the Cimino's home in the 8700 block of NW 40th Street around 2 a.m. Wednesday. After taking a knife from the kitchen he reportedly made his way to a bedroom where the girl and her grandmother were sleeping. The girl's mother said after he picked her up "he told her to be quiet, that he was taking her out of the house."
"When he picked me up, he said I was to be quiet. When he came downstairs, he said don't throw up. He rubbed my belly," said the girl.
Cimino heard the commotion and confronted him at the bottom of the townhome's staircase. After screaming at him to drop her granddaughter, Cimino said Schlafer put the girl on the floor, dropped the knife on the staircase and ran out of the house.
He was arrested a short time later on a nearby golf course. Neither the grandmother nor the girl was injured in the incident.
Schlafer was arrested and charged with armed kidnapping of a child under 13 years of age and armed burglary.
Police said the girl and her family did not know Schlafer before the incident and believe there may be other children out there he may have tried to abduct.
Anyone with information is asked to call Detective Kim Eveker at (954) 346-1388.
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