Dramatic moment six-year-old girl is rescued from ‘kidnapper’ and cries ‘I want my daddy’
DRAMATIC footage captured the moment police rescued a terrified six-year-old girl from a kidnapper who allegedly snatched her while she was playing outside on her bike.
The girl, who has not been named, had been playing in the front yard of her home in Valley Station, Kentucky at around 5.40pm when police say Robbie Wildt, 40, pulled up alongside her in his Dodge Charger.
Police say Wildt go out of his car, grabbed the girl by the collar of her shirt, and threw her in the passenger seat of his car. He then allegedly drove away at speed.
Neighbor Prentiss Weatherford had been sitting on his porch at the time and witnessed the abduction.
“It happened quick,” he told WAVE3. “He came around the corner, parked his car, [and] got out within 15 seconds.”
Weatherford and his father jumped in their own car and gave chase to the suspect, noting down his license plate number as they called 911.
While tailing the suspect, Weatherford flagged down a police officer who had been called to the scene by another witness, describing the car to them.
Louisville PD Sgt. Joe Keeling and officer Jason Burba located the fleeing red Dodge within 10 minutes, parked in a driveway.
Burba’s body camera captured the moment he stepped out of his patrol vehicle with his gun drawn, ordering Wildt to get on the ground.
The heroic cop then approaches the Dodge and yells: “Open the passenger door”, noting that he can see someone sat inside.
Keeling calls out, “That might be our victim.”
Burba then lowers his weapon and reaches for the car door.
Inside, he finds a sobbing girl who is terrified and immediately reaches for the officer.
“Hello,” he tells the child in a soft, calm voice. “It’s okay. come here.”
He then hoists the girl up who, through screams, heartbreakingly calls out: “I want my daddy!”
Another body camera video shows Sgt Keeling ordering Wildt out of the car with his hands in the air.
The 40-year-old suspect is instructed to walk backward and kneel on the ground. He’s then placed in handcuffs and taken into custody.
The entire incident last 30 minutes. LMPD credited the quick-thinking actions of the two officers and of Weatherford.
Speaking to local media Burba, father-of-four, called the ordeal “tough.”
“It’s like the world stops,” Burba said. “Like every second feels like hours.”
“It was overwhelming,” Keeling added. “Especially when you hear her crying and asking for her family because she’s so scared. It was definitely a gut check.”
In a subsequent interview with police, Wildt allegedly told officers he saw the girl playing outside, circled the block and then “took her from the side of the road.”
Wildt said as the girl cried, he tried to console her “before deciding he knew what he was doing was wrong.”
The suspect claimed he then began to drive the victim back home because he was “afraid he may hurt her.”
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He later said he “felt bad for what he had done”, police documents state.
Wildt has been charged with one count of kidnapping a minor.
He remains in custody in lieu of a $1 million bond.