Update: The 16-year-old girl, who was kidnapped from a Bronx street in front of her mother, has been found safe, police said late Tuesday.
Authorities — who had characterized the disappearance as a kidnapping — said that the girl walked up to a police car at the intersection where she vanished. Police are now questioning Karol Sanchez to know what really happened.
"We were looking at the picture saying, 'I hope she's OK,' and she walked right up," Akash Singh, 29, a witness who was looking at a missing poster of Sanchez when she walked up to the cops said. "She was trembling while she was walking. She just looked really scared. She put her hands on her knees and she started talking to the cops. They jumped out of the car and put her in."
Original Story:
Two men were caught on camera snatching a 16-year-old girl off a New York City sidewalk on Monday night in an apparent kidnapping, authorities said. Police said that the girl, identified as Karol Sanchez, was with her mother when the incident took place.
Sanchez was walking with her 36-year-old mom on a sidewalk in the Bronx about a mile east of Yankee Stadium when a beige-colored four-door sedan pulled up, police said.
"Two unknown males exited the vehicle, grabbed the 16-year-old female, and dragged her inside the vehicle while pushing the victim's mother to the ground," according to an NYPD statement. "The vehicle, also occupied by two additional unknown males, then fled east bound... The mother, left at the scene, was not injured and refused medical attention."
Police said that they are trying to get information about the incident and are hopeful someone witnessed the abduction or knows the suspects.
"The New York City Police Department is seeking the public's assistance identifying the following individuals wanted for questioning in connection to a kidnapping incident," authorities said.
Giving the description of Sanchez, police said she is about 5-foot-5, 150 pounds, with short black hair and brown eyes. She was wearing a dark blue short jacket, white sweater, blue jeans and black sneakers when she was abducted.
While the images of the kidnappers were unclear, police said that the men appeared to be in their 20s and were wearing dark-colored clothes.
New York Mayor Bill de Blasio urged the public to come forward with any information that could help find the teenager.
"To Karol Sanchez's family and loved ones, know that the NYPD will not rest until she's found — and her kidnappers are brought to justice," he tweeted.
