JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — The Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office is investigating what one mother is referring to as an attempted kidnapping at the Jacksonville Zoo.
The mother spoke with Action News Jax under the promise that she would remain anonymous to protect her five-year-old daughter.
She says the incident happened Friday around 1:30 p.m. when a man approached her daughter and her friend and tried to lure them into the woods.
“We decided to take the kids to the park to let them play because that’s usually the recess time in school,” she said. “My daughter’s friend came running and said that a man approached them.”
She says the man introduced himself as “Barbie” and told the two young girls that he watched them do swim lessons at the pool and knew their parents.
She says when her daughter’s friend ran to get her mom, the man bolted.
“We all tried to look for him, but he was gone,” she said. “We even had like parents climb the top of the park trying to see if we could see him running, and he was just gone.”
She says her daughter could only give a vague description of the man — bald with no tattoos, facial hair or scars, wearing a black shirt, blue jeans and a black backpack.
“When I explained to her what the man was doing, she cried a lot, and she wouldn’t let me put her down for like two hours,” she said. “And I didn’t want to put her down for two hours because just the thought of what could have happened.”
The mother said that when she alerted zoo staff, security told her another incident had happened with another child earlier that same day.
She says zoo security told her they needed to gather more evidence before contacting the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office, but we learned the zoo didn’t report it to JSO until Saturday, nearly 24 hours later.
This mother says she’s just thankful that her daughter is safe.
“I just want other moms to be aware because I don’t want any mom to go through this,” she said. “She had a smart friend that reacted quickly and came and got us.”
“Honestly, that little girl saved my daughter. She saved her from being taken, and I will forever be eternally grateful for that. I just, I couldn’t imagine if anything would have happened to her.”
Action News Jax reached out to the Jacksonville Zoo to ask why they waited to contact JSO, if there have been more incidents and what they’re doing to keep families safe. We’re waiting to hear back.
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