Gas Station Attendant Nabs Alleged Kidnapper Grandma

Photodisc/Thinkstock(TONOPAH, Ariz.) — An Arizona gas station attendant is being hailed a hero after helping police nab a woman accused of kidnapping her granddaughter.

Karin Akins was working at a gas station earlier this week when 57-year-old Carolyn Ferguson came into the station with a baby after her car broke down nearby. Akins said she became suspicious after noticing that Ferguson tried to feed the infant with her cappuccino milk.

Akins called 911 and her supervisor after Ferguson was unable to answer simple questions about her granddaughter’s name.

Eventually the employee and her supervisor figured out that an Amber alert had been issued for 6-month-old Laylani Mosley, who was last seen with her grandmother Carolyn Ferguson. According to court documents. Ferguson was listed as bipolar and off her medication.

“It’s a mom thing,” Akins said of her suspicions. “If it wasn’t her baby … it would kill me if I let her walk out that door and know later on that it wasn’t hers and could have done something at that moment.”

To keep the grandmother from leaving, Akins distracted the woman by taking pictures with the baby and changing her diaper. Eventually police arrived and were able to take Ferguson into custody.

Akins is being credited with saving Laylani.

“Had it not been for her and how observant she was, and attention to detail, we probably wouldn’t be standing here with a successful story right now,” said Deputy Joaquin Enriquez of the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office.

 

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