{"id":350010,"date":"2026-09-18T06:16:29","date_gmt":"2026-09-18T06:16:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/350010\/"},"modified":"2026-09-18T06:16:29","modified_gmt":"2026-09-18T06:16:29","slug":"hero-nyc-cop-praised-as-strong-mom-for-saving-son-from-clutches-of-crazed-kidnapper-while-pregnant","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/350010\/","title":{"rendered":"Hero NYC cop praised as &#8216;strong mom&#8217; for saving son from clutches of crazed kidnapper while pregnant"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A Brooklyn dad called his cop wife a hero for saving their 4-year-old son from the clutches of a crazed woman who tried to snatch the boy from his grandma in an horrific <a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2026\/09\/16\/us-news\/female-stranger-tries-to-kidnap-boy-4-from-outside-nyc-mcdonalds-backs-off-when-gutsy-granny-steps-in-cops-sources\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">attempted kidnapping<\/a> earlier this week.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHis mom pulled him away from her,\u201d dad Gentle Roberts said Thursday of his off-duty cop wife, Anyia James Roberts, who is 7 months pregnant. \u201cShe\u2019s a strong woman. She\u2019s back at work today.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Gentle Roberts said the tot was with his grandma outside a Crown Heights fast McDonalds when the stranger grabbed the boy by his shirt and tried to pull him away.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" style=\"aspect-ratio:0.69140625;display:block\" decoding=\"async\"   data-modal-image=\"40862108\" width=\"408\" height=\"590\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/4-year-old-boy-involved-141460365.jpg\" alt=\"J Mark Roberts, 4, with his parents Gentle Roberts and Anyia James Roberts, posing for a portrait in Brooklyn, N.Y.\" class=\"wp-image-40862108\"\/>J Mark Roberts, 4, with his parents, Gentle Roberts and Anyia James Roberts, in Brooklyn, N.Y., on Tuesday, January 11, 2022.  Obtained by NY Post<\/p>\n<p>\u201cShe was saying, \u2018That\u2019s my kid!\u2019 She was saying that more than once,\u201d Roberts told The Post. \u201cThe lady grabbed him by his shirt on his shoulder, and she wouldn\u2019t let go. She was fighting his grandmother. They were pulling him back and forth, and he started crying.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cShe didn\u2019t look homeless. She was clean. She had a phone. They never seen her before.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Cops said the unnerving encounter took place around 5 p.m. while the youngster was with his 66-year-old grandmother on East Parkway near Utica Avenue.<\/p>\n<p>That\u2019s when the woman tried to grab the youngsters, until the boy\u2019s mother stepped in to play both super mom and super cop.<\/p>\n<p><img style=\"aspect-ratio:0.79980469;display:block\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\"   data-modal-image=\"40862111\" width=\"472\" height=\"590\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/female-stranger-tried-kidnap-4-141345469_77d332.jpg\" alt=\"Surveillance image of a woman wanted for attempted kidnapping in Brooklyn.\" class=\"wp-image-40862111\"\/>A woman suspected of attempting to kidnap a 4-year-old boy is shown in Brooklyn. The suspect fled after the child\u2019s 66-year-old grandmother fought back. NYPD Crimestoppers<\/p>\n<p>Police are still looking for the would-be kidnapper, who ran off after the boy\u2019s mom grabbed her son, who was scared and crying but otherwise fine \u2013 and was back at school Thursday.<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\tStart your day with all you need to know\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p class=\"inline-module__cta\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tMorning Report delivers the latest news, videos, photos and more.\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\tThanks for signing up!\n\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, police released surveillance images of the suspect, and asked anyone with information on her whereabouts to call the NYPD Crime Stoppers Hotline at 1-800-577-TIPS.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI want them to find her because if she don\u2019t get him, she could come back and she could try to get him again,\u201d Gentle Roberts said. \u201cOr she could try to get some other kid. She\u2019s definitely not right. I would tell her to turn herself in. They\u2019re looking for you.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Brooklyn dad called his cop wife a hero for saving their 4-year-old son from the clutches of&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":350011,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[102,7372,57,9,56,63,65,64,103,241,4014,58],"class_list":["post-350010","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york-city","tag-crown-heights","tag-kidnappings","tag-metro","tag-new-york","tag-ny","tag-nyc","tag-nyc-headlines","tag-nyc-news","tag-nypd","tag-police-officers","tag-pregnancy","tag-us-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/350010","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=350010"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/350010\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/350011"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=350010"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=350010"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=350010"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}