I was horrified when ‘strange woman tried to rip my son, two, away while screaming “he’s taken my baby” in shop’
A PETRIFIED father has spoken out about his horror ordeal when a stranger tried to steal his two-year-old from his arms in a shop.
Jon Baylis says he had to desperately fend off a woman who attempted to abduct his son while screaming "he's taken my baby" in Truro, Cornwall on Sunday.
Jon, who works for the NHS, was out shopping for the day with his son when an unknown woman approached him and began to make a scene.
He claims she tried to take his toddler, Dexter, from him as she shouted "that's my baby, he's taken my baby."
Jon screamed for help but reportedly feels let down by staff at the shop who did not intervene or call the police.
Other witnesses are reported to have come forward to say a strange woman - believed to be in her 50s - was following them around Truro over the weekend.
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The father first noticed the woman earlier in the day when she came up to the pair and said: ";Hello, beautiful little boy."
"I noticed her close behind me as I was walking through Truro and started feeling odd. I could see her really close in the reflections in shop windows," he told .
In the next shop, she sat down next to the father and son and asked to hold Dexter. Jon said he refused and exited the shop.
"I picked up Dex and left store with the woman following close behind," he said.
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Things then took a scarier turn when she followed him into the shoe shop Schuh and demanded to hold the baby.
"She was right in my face saying 'let me hold him'. I told her 'you need to stay away now and back off, I don't want to hurt you'.
"She then started screaming 'that's my baby, he's taken my baby'," Jon explained.
"I started shouting for help from the public and staff but no one did a thing, they just carried on serving and looking at shoes."
The distressed father claims "no one did a thing to remove her or take me and my son to safety".
"I asked them to call the police but they said they couldn't and I would have to do it."
Jon says he was forced to get out his own phone to call the police and that's when the stranger ran off.
"I've never felt so alone," he said.
The woman was described to be in her mid fifties, slim build, smartly dressed with blonde/white hair and blue eyeliner.
"I just want other parents out there to be careful," Jon said.
"I nearly had my two-year-old son abducted from Truro, but got no help from the public or from the staff which is so disgusting. I felt alone in a packed shop."
The terrified father told his story on Facebook, where other distressed parents reached out to say they also had run-ins with a strange woman.
A mum claims she was forced to hide after an unsettling encounter with a woman in the city who approached her and her two-year-old daughter.
A man also believes the same woman followed him between shops in Truro on Saturday and only left when he rang his wife to tell her a "strange woman" was following him.
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Devon and Cornwall Police were notified of the incident and are making inquiries to identify the woman.
Did you see this woman in Truro over the weekend? Get in touch! Email: [email protected] or [email protected]
