CHARLOTTE — Three teens allegedly robbed a mother and threatened to kidnap her child on Mother’s Day while she was selling flowers and purses in an east Charlotte parking lot.
The strangers demanded money at gunpoint, or they would take her two-year-old child, according to a police report.
Surveillance video shows what unfolded in the parking lot along Albemarle Road near Winterhaven Drive.
“Everything happened so fast,” said the woman, who did not want to be identified.
She said teens tried to buy some handbags with a fake $100 bill.
“A couple of kids pulled up in a black car,” she said.
The woman called them out and that was when the thieves told her to hand over all her money or they would take her son.
“He was asleep in my arms,” the woman said.
A teen could be seen on the video lunging for the boy.
“It’s sad,” the woman said. “It’s really sad because I’m not doing anything wrong out there. I’m just trying to make a living.”
The victim screamed for help and bystanders ran toward her.
“Everything was too fast,” she told Channel 9. “The ice cream lady started yelling, ‘Help! Help! Help! They’re robbing her. Come on. Everybody help her.’”
One of the teens pulled out a gun and she gave them some cash before they left in a getaway car.
“I was afraid they were going to take my child,” she said.
The mother said she is thankful no one was hurt and hopes the teens are caught.
“My son didn’t deserve this,” she said. “I didn’t deserve that.”
Charlotte-Mecklenburg police are investigating the armed robbery.
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