A 31-year-old woman has been arrested in connection with the attempted kidnapping of a 1-year-old girl on Monday in the Costco parking lot in Santee, officials said.
The woman was located in Chula Vista on Tuesday evening and was arrested by sheriff’s deputies, said sheriff’s Lt. Christopher Galve. She was being held in Las Colinas jail in lieu of $100,000 bail.
The incident happened Monday shortly before 6 p.m. when a woman tried repeatedly to remove a toddler from a shopping cart being pushed by her parents in the Costco parking lot, authorities said.
Sheriff’s officials said the kidnapping didn’t occur because the child was strapped into the cart with a lap belt. The child wasn’t injured.
The would-be kidnapper took off on foot, heading south toward Mission Gorge Road. By time deputies arrived she was gone. Deputies, assisted by a crew in a sheriff’s helicopter, searched the area for the woman but were unable to locate her.
Detectives from the Santee Sheriff’s Station began investigating the incident and made an arrest on Orsett Street in Chula Vista around 7:30 p.m. Tuesday.
