An incredibly unsettling video from a police officer's bodycam captured the moment officers found a 6-year-old girl inside of a suspected kidnapper's car. The little girl had been kidnapped outside of her home in Kentucky while she was riding her bike.
The jarring footage shows a Louisville police officer arriving at a home and opening the passenger-side door of a red car. Inside, the little girl is sobbing and terrified.
The officer picks her up while she cries, "I want my daddy!"
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It's so hard to watch the footage and imagine what might be going on in the poor little girl's mind. But thankfully, she was unharmed.
The suspect has been identified as 40-year-old Robby Wildt. Officers demanded he get down on the ground. The suspect can be seen in the video on his knees with his hands in the air.
The suspect has been charged with kidnapping a minor. His bond has been set at $1 million. Wildt reportedly said that he knew what he did was wrong and was going to take the child back home.
Officer Jason Burba of the Louisville Metro Police Department told WDRB that the entire police force dropped everything to get to the little girl. “You just can’t get there fast enough,” he said. “Seconds feel like hours. Your only thought is getting there as fast as you can.”
The officers are being praised for the amazing rescue. It wouldn't have been possible, however, if it weren't for the actions of a witness. A neighbor actually saw the suspect's car pull up and the driver grab the child and put her in his car.
Neighbor Prentiss Weatherford said the whole thing happened so quickly, and that within about 15 seconds the kidnapper parked his car, got out, and took the little girl. "He just grabbed her by the collar," he told WHAS-TV.
Luckily, witnesses quickly called police. Officers credited those neighbors with giving them a detailed description of the suspect, as well as a partial license plate. That's how they ended up finding the car within 30 minutes.
Wildt has pleaded not guilty to the charges against him.
While police say abductions of this sort are rare, it of course raises alarm bells in the community. Police spokesperson Beth Ruoff said, "Although we do not want the community to be alarmed, this is certainly an educational opportunity for parents to remind their children that ‘stranger danger' is real."
