A daycare worker is being praised for stopping an alleged child abduction after a man tried to snatch two boys from a playground. Chelsi Sabbie says her mixed martial arts training came into play when she noticed a man approaching two of the boys in her care. Sabbie runs a daycare in Prince George, British Columbia.
She was in the playground with some children when she saw the man grab a a 4-year-old boy and started to run away.
“There was no way i was going to let him take off with a child,” Chelsi told reporters.
She chased after the man and jumped on his back and got him in a choke hold. He let the boy go when he fell to the ground but he did’t give up and next attempted to grab a 5-year-old boy.
“I hit him in the throat and knocked his feet out from underneath him,” Chelsi told Global TV News. “I grabbed the five-year-old and put him up on top of the play centre and I jumped up there.”
Next, she put the other six children up high on the playground equipment and began screaming for help, but the man wouldn’t stop and tried to snatch a 6-year-old girl.
That’s when the fight got physical and the man punched Chelsi several times in the face and she knocked him down off the playground equipment. When she grabbed the man in a headlock again she told the children to run to safety.
By this time, people had heard her cries for help and called police.
“He jumps up, he again punches me several times in the head and we go at it,” she said. “At this time, it kind of turned nasty. I had to grab him by the hair and knee him in the face a few times, and then he ran away.”
“He was very persistent and it had to get violent. I had no choice but to hurt him and get him on the ground. There was no way I was letting him get away with one of the children.”
Police arrived and managed to track the man down. They said that just minutes before, they had been called to another scene where a man had allegedly grabbed a young boy who was with his mother.
Kenneth Jim John, 35, was arrested and has been charged with two counts of kidnapping, and one count each of assault and obstructing a peace officer. The man is well-known to police and has a long criminal record.
As for citizens in the community, they have nothing but praise for Chelsi’s courage and action in protecting the children in her care. Share if you agree!
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