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| Sunday, Feb 24 2008 4:19 PM
Last Updated: Sunday, Feb 24 2008 10:42 PM
Quick action by neighbors led to the swift recovery of a 4-year-old girl and the arrest of the man accused of abducting her in broad daylight Sunday, Bakersfield police said.
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Bakersfield police arrest Robert Perez Rodriguez, 43, on suspicion of kidnapping a 4-year-old girl Sunday. The girl was recovered by her father, and neighbors worked with police to find Rodriguez hiding under a pickup.
Robert Perez Rodriguez, 43, was arrested on suspicion of kidnapping and assault with a deadly weapon, according to Bakersfield Police Sgt. Greg Terry.
The girl was playing outside in south Bakersfield with an 11-year-old girl when Rodriguez, who had been loitering in the neighborhood for about 15 minutes, called out to the older girl, police said. The girl went inside and told her mother, who came outside in time to see the younger girl inside the man’s car as he was leaving.
The girl’s father was told about the abduction and launched his own search. He found the car, a maroon Toyota Camry, at Stiern Park, Terry said, and managed to grab his daughter from the car. Rodriguez then took off, and the father left his daughter with a neighbor while he pursued the kidnapper.
That was at about 1 p.m., and the police were called about then.
About 10 minutes later, another neighbor searching for the car called police to say it was on Miria Drive, near Hughes Lane. It was seen again, this time unoccupied, on Bernice Drive where it dead-ends near Hughes.
Witnesses told police a man had fled into the neighborhood, so police set up a perimeter around the area.
At 2 p.m., a neighbor told police that a man was hiding under a pickup on Hughes Lane, and police were able to pull the man out.
Woody Johnson and Faye Smith said they saw the man dragged out from under the pickup by a K-9 unit. The man parked the car in front of their house.
“This is where it ended at, right here,” Johnson said.
Terry credited the quick action of the witnesses and family with the successful outcome.
“It doesn’t get more serious than the kidnapping of a child,” he said.
The kidnapping was unusual for Bakersfield, Terry said. A broad daylight snatch of a child rarely happens.
“He’s bold,” Smith said. “He did that it broad daylight.”