Deputies have arrested a 15-year-old boy they say broke into his downstairs neighbor's apartment and tried to kidnap her handicapped young child.
The teen, whom Bay News 9 is not identifying because of his age, was charged with attempted kidnapping, burglary of an occupied dwelling and violation of probation because he was on felony probation with an 8 p.m. curfew.
According to the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office, deputies were called to a home on the 9400 block of Windermere Lake Drive at 10:15 p.m. Friday. The woman there, 23-year-old Franyeli Martinez-Rodriguez, told them she heard loud screams and then found a teen she didn't know standing in a bedroom holding her 5-year-old child.
The woman said she was able to grab the child back from the intruder and push him toward the window he had smashed his way in through.
“She was in the bathroom," an interpreter said for Martinez-Rodriguez. "She was taking a shower and heard some windows breaking and shattering. She opened the door and she hears the little boy screaming.
"She runs to her last bedroom, where he's at, and saw that he (the teen) was holding him by the stomach with his legs and hands dangling, trying to get out of the window with him. That's when she ran to him and pulled him away from the guy."
Deputies searched the area by ground and air, but came up empty. Later, though, a teen matching a description given by Martinez-Rodriguez returned to the scene and was arrested.
Through a translator Martinez-Rodriguez said she’s very scared.
“She’s now where she’s sleeping with a knife under her pillow,” she said.
The teen lives with his family in the unit above the woman's apartment and had just moved in last week, deputies said. His father said he couldn't believe his son would attempt such an act and believes he's innocent.
Police have not speculated on a motive.