Exclusive: Parents Recount Horrifying Encounter With Man Accused Of Trying To Abduct Children From Queens Home
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- A suspect caught on surveillance video is accused of putting a little girl through a terrifying ordeal.
Investigators say he broke into her family's Queens home and pulled her from her bed.
Her mom lived every parent's worst nightmare.
"If I didn't call 911 at the right time, he would have killed everybody," she said.
Surveillance video shows an intruder walking right into her Flushing home while her children were sleeping.
"He just tapped my daughter's belly. 'Get up, get up,'" she said.
The mother of three told CBS2's Cory James her daughter told the man, "No," a response she says made the alleged abductor angry.
"Pulled her out from the bunk bed ... he bring her outside here and then he pull her down the stairs," she said.
Video shows the man open the door before tossing the girl down the steps. He then walks back in.
According to the family, he went to wake up their 5-year-old son.
"My son was screaming," the mother said.
A loud noise that alerted both parents.
The kids' father says he opened the door and came face to face with the suspect.
"He said, 'Don't call 911, I have your kids,'" the father said.
The father says the suspect took off running while his wife called police.
Authorities later caught up with him and identified him as 32-year-old Pete Haughton, of Brentwood, Long Island -- a man who left neighbors stunned.
"I live next door and I'm just like, oh my god, I have a daughter and it could have happened over here," neighbor Katherine Pastuizaca said.
"It's horrible I have a newborn at home. It's a very scary thing to even just comprehend," neighbor Robert Pawlawski said.
Both parents say the suspect got in because their locked screen door was not closed all the way.
"It was locked but we have to push the door all the way inside," the mother said.
Something they are going to make sure they do from now on.
But for now, they are just thankful their daughter is OK.
"Thank to god she survived," the father said.
And grateful for the first responders who they say responded within minutes.
"I will thank them my whole, whole entire life to the police department," the mother said.
The parents of the little girl said she had some cuts and bruises from being thrown but will be OK.
Haughton is still in jail, facing charges of burglary, attempted kidnapping, assault and endangering the welfare of a child.
He doesn't have any criminal history according Queens District Attorney's office, but if convicted, he faces up to 25 years in prison.
