A US mother has appealed to locals to be vigilant, after a stranger approached her trolley at a supermarket and took her child out of the front seat.
Florence Monauer, from Houston in Texas, took to Facebook to share chilling footage captured on CCTV during her recent visit to a supermarket.
In the video, she is seen browsing the shelves while her baby daughter sits in the front seat of the trolley.
While Florence’s back is turned, however, a man walks up and picks her child up out of the seat; Florence’s attention is only caught when she sees the tot’s blanket falling, out of the corner of her eye.
Florence is then seen chatting (somewhat awkwardly) to the man as he gives her daughter a cuddle, and swiftly takes her back into her arms.
In the Facebook post, the spooked mother ‘explained her actions’, saying that she thought the stranger was ‘just an over-friendly guy’.
“I generally don’t want to assume that people are up to no good. I’m so angry with myself for letting him hold her even for a second. The more I thought about it, the more wrong it appeared,” she wrote.
As well as serving as a warning to local parents living in the area, the footage dishes up an eerie reminder of just how quickly and easily a child can be snatched.
With the footage now viral, let’s hope it will remind parents to be extra vigilant.
