Attempted kidnapping caught on Ring doorbell video

(NewsNation) — A mother in Ohio is breathing a sigh of relief after her daughter escaped a would-be kidnapper in an encounter that was captured on a Ring doorbell camera.

The family’s home security camera shows the little girl by the sidewalk in front of her house when a man stops and touches the girl, then grabs her by the arm and tries to drag her away. She screams and pulls away before running inside.

The whole encounter takes less than 10 seconds.

“All I heard was a blood-curdling scream and she said, ‘Mommy, someone touched me, someone tried to kidnap me,'” the girl’s mother, Mandie Miller-Nash, said Monday on “NewsNation Prime.” “So then my husband got in the car and followed him and cornered him until they could apprehend him.”

Police arrested 33-year-old Deric McPherson, who has a history of arrests for minor offenses.

Miller-Nash credited her daughter’s quick thinking for getting away.

“We have talked to her about stranger danger … to scream, kick, fight, run, just draw attention to yourself,” Miller-Nash said.

It’s a good reminder as kids head off to bus stops this fall for the start of the school year.

In May 2021, another attempted kidnapping was caught on camera. An 11-year-old in Florida was waiting for her bus when a man jumped out of a white vehicle with a knife and tried to drag her to the car.

The county sheriff spoke to NewsNation at the time, praising her actions to get away.

“She was able to fight,” Escambia County Sheriff Chip Simmons said. “Although it happens quickly, she’s fighting, she’s kicking, she’s squirming.”

The girl gets up and runs away, and the suspect was later arrested.

Experts advise these tips to keep kids safe:

• Talk to your family
• Create identification cards
• Identify emergency hot spots

After seeing the terrifying images of what almost happened to their daughter, Miller-Nash wants every family to “absolutely have the talk about stranger danger” with their children.

“It can happen so fast,” she said. “Let them know what to do in a situation like this.”