Heart-warming dashcam footage shows two Ohio troopers comfort a sobbing 5-year-old girl when she was rescued 1,000 miles away from her home after allegedly being abducted by her mom.
The youngster had been reported missing by her father, who has full custody in Westminster, Colorado, and had thought she was staying with her maternal grandparents, CBS4 said.
He realized from social media that his daughter was instead with her 22-year-old mom, Christine Mascarenas, the report said.
The Ohio State Highway Patrol spotted the mom’s car on the Ohio Turnpike late Saturday after getting the abducted-child alert, the force said, sharing the “heartfelt moment” officers first found her.
“Your dad was calling us. Your dad’s afraid for you … he wanted us to stop and talk to you for a little bit, OK?” one of the troopers could be heard telling the crying girl, reassuring her that “your mama’s OK.”
“I got a little present for ya,” one of the officers told her, walking to his squad car to get a teddy bear that appeared to be wearing a trooper’s hat.
Christine Mascarenas Corrections Center of Northwest Ohio“This is Teddy, he’s a trooper,” he told her, with the footage finally showing the now-calm youngster wrapped in a blanket as she left her mother’s car and walked to their squad vehicle. The mom — not seen in the clip — was arrested without incident, the OSHP said.
One of the officers, Sgt. Ryan Purpura, told CBS4 they were “grateful” to be able to return the girl safely to her dad.
“You can’t help but always think of your own children. It went well,” he said.
Mascarenas was booked into the Corrections Center of Northwest Ohio and charged in Ohio with interfering with a custody order, a felony, CBS4 said.
Last year, she pleaded guilty to three felonies — menacing, drug possession and vehicular eluding — avoiding jail time for each, the report said.
