An Alabama mother says she kept her eyes on a man who high-fived her son in a Walmart. Then she caught him trying to take him out of her shopping cart.
Attalla Police Department
- A man tried to take a child from a woman's grocery cart in Alabama, police said.
- The woman said she was wary of the man after he gave her son a high-five.
- Police said they have identified the man and are working to find him for an "interview."
Police are looking for a man in Alabama who allegedly attempted to abduct a child who was in a Walmart with his mom.
The mom said she was weary of the unidentified older man who gave her young son a high-five in a grocery store, per AL.com. Then, she allegedly caught him trying to take her son from her shopping cart, police say.
Tiffany Rush told AL.com that she was in the self-checkout line with her 3-year-old son Mason when the man approached them and gave Mason a high-five, which she assumed was to calm him down because he was throwing a tantrum.
"I was OK with that but I kept my eyes on him," Rush told AL.com.
Rush said the man told Mason, "We're going to go to my truck," and lifted him out of her shopping cart and into his, according to Al.com. Rush said she initially wasn't sure if the man was serious and that the moment felt "like a tv show."
"You don't touch someone's kids like that,'' Rush told AL.com. "I couldn't believe it."
"He was trying to take him,'' Rush said. "It was very scary. I have four other kids and I have never had this happen before."
The Attalla Police Department received a report at around noon on Thursday of an older man who had taken a child from a woman's shopping cart and placed the child into his shopping cart before the child's mother grabbed him and put her back into her shopping cart, the department said in a statement.
Police say they have identified the man as a truck driver who works for a trucking company that is based in Illinois and they are "working with several state agencies to locate this driver to interview," according to the statement.
Rush said she went to the Attalla Police Department to file a report and didn't feel that she was taken seriously initially. Police said in their statement that they have reviewed "several hours" of security camera footage to identify the man and are in the process of locating him.
The Attalla Police Department did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.