Doorbell camera footage appears to show a man hiding and apparently trying to abduct a girl from an apartment in Queens before her mother and a neighbor stopped the attempt, CBS 2 News reported.
The kidnapping incident occurred Jan. 23 when Lex Alvarez, the 18-year-old daughter of Adriana Alvarez, was returning to her apartment after walking the family’s two dogs, the New York Post first reported. (RELATED: Video Shows Father Fighting Off Man Who Grabbed His 4-Year-Old Child)
The footage uploaded to YouTube by CBS 2 News showed the alleged attempted abductor suddenly jumping into the camera’s frame from a stairway and appearing to grab the daughter.
One of the dogs appeared in frame briefly looking confused as the alleged attempted abductor appeared to drag a shouting and screaming Lex out of view and down the stairway. Adriana was seen in the footage running after the suspect and her daughter shouting, “get the [expletive] off her.”
“I’ve never heard my daughter scream like that,” Adriana later told the New York Post. The 35-year-old mother told the outlet she at first thought a dog had escaped but when exited her apartment she observed that her daughter was “being dragged away.”
“You never imagine this kind of thing would happen to you, especially in your own building. It was horrible,” Adriana reportedly added.
Adriana quickly jumped into action by struggling with the alleged perpetrator. “From the fourth to the first floor, we were just tumbling, fighting,” she told CBS 2 News.
Gus Bougas, a neighbor of the Alvarez family, heard the commotion and managed to apprehend the suspect. “I put my foot in front and threw him on the floor and landed on top of him. Tried to keep him restrained until the cops came,” Bougas told the outlet.
Police told the outlet that the suspect they arrested and charged was George Vassiliou, a 25-year-old male. Adriana alleged that he was stalking her daughter for some time, CBS 2 News reported.
Vassiliou is being held at Rikers Island with bail set at $50,000, according to jail records, the New York Post reported. Police recovered a rope from a bag, sleeping pills, tampons and melatonin from a car the suspect rented and had parked outside of the apartment building, New York Police Department sources told the outlet. They also reportedly alleged that he had a knife in a pocket.
Adriana told CBS 2 News she suffered “an orbital eye fracture,” “nerve damage” and “a dislocated shoulder — dislocated elbow.” A GoFundMe account has currently raised over $39,000 to cover her medical and recovery expenses. The fundraiser’s goal was set at $5,000.