Mom Shares Video Of Stranger Snatching Her Child After She Turned Her Back In Grocery Store
It could happen to anyone.
Facebook On Sunday, August 21, 2022, a mother named Danielle Wolff went grocery shopping with her 8-month-old daughter to pick up a few things that she needed.
What she didn’t expect was that while she had her back turned for merely a few moments, a man would try to take her baby from the child seat in her shopping cart.
The mother shared the video of a stranger trying to snatch her child while her back was turned.
Security footage of the incident that occurred was uploaded by Wolff on Facebook and shows her, along with several other customers, walking around the aisles of the supermarket as they shop for the things they need.
Wolff is identified early on in the footage as she is the only woman in the frame that’s holding a child and moving a shopping cart at the same time.
As the mother moves along the aisles, she decides that she’d grab something from the refrigerated section of the Meyersdal Spar in Gauteng, South Africa.
“I have her in my arms and when I get to the meat section I place her in the trolley to free up my hands,” she wrote in the Facebook post. “I find what I’m looking for and bend down [to pick it up]. Within an instant, a stranger is seen in the video taking my daughter.”
One of the workers at the supermarket with a plastic apron that was previously seen walking up and down the meat section, walked up and snatched the baby from the shopping cart and walked in the direction opposite of where Wolff was bending down.
“I look up and she’s gone…. I immediately look for her and find her in the arms of this man. I’m able to grab her from him and say what’s he doing with my daughter?” she continues. “Why does he have her?”
The concerned mother inside her immediately rises to the surface as her child had almost been taken from her by a stranger — who, after being confronted, laughs off the ordeal.
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“He is smiling and laughing telling me he walked past the trolley and my daughter's arms were up, so he picked her up,” she continued. “I am frozen and confused. Why is he laughing? Behind me is another staff member - also laughing.”
After bringing it up with the manager, he assured her that no one should be touching her child and that the employee will be spoken to.
Getting her husband involved, they talk to the manager once again and take a look at the footage, recording it for safekeeping, and are told by the store manager that they will investigate.
“Suspect has since been arrested and investigations around the incident will continue,” wrote Wolff in the post. “Head of Spar SA have reached out to us and are assisting in the matter.”
The purpose of her post was to raise awareness as the post began with the exclamation that “you never think it will happen to you.”
“I’ve watched this video so many times,” she wrote, “a few more seconds and who knows what could have happened.”
Many parents in the comments sympathize with Wolff and share that this is their biggest fear.
“I shop there on a daily basis with my girls,” wrote one mother. “I’ll never be comfortable taking them there again.”
Isaac Serna-Diez is an Assistant Editor who focuses on entertainment and news, social justice, and politics. Keep up with his rants about current events on his Twitter.