A young girl’s instinct saved her young brother from abduction, and she is being hailed a hero.
Julianne Moore, 11, from Ohio, Cleveland, is one young girl who demonstrates that paying attention to your family can save a life, or in this case, the life of her younger brother. When the two children were out playing in their front yard in Old Brooklyn, a west side neighborhood of Cleveland, they were interrupted by a strange man who approached them.
“When he tried to grab my brother, I knew like this was serious. This was not like any handshake or anything,” Julianne said. Without her quick thinking, the result might well have been entirely different, as it was obvious the man was attempting to kidnap Hayden.
“I just grabbed my brother and went into the backyard because there was no time to panic. You just have to go with it,” she said.
Julianne and her brother then told their father, Joshua Moore, who then ran outside to confront the man.
“My daughter came running back there with my son, dragging him by the arm and screaming. I said, ‘Julianne, what’s wrong?’ She said a man tried to abduct Hayden,” Joshua said.
Upon confronting the man, Joshua asked him if he had touched his child: “I said, ‘Excuse me, did you touch my child?’ And he just threw his arms out like this and continued walking. At that point, I came back. My daughter was crying and upset, and we called police,” Moore said.
Joshua then called the police. Based on Julianne’s description of the man, the Cleveland division police were able to track a man just half a mile from the home. The man was arrested and identified as Pedro Luyando, 33, of Cleveland. Luyando was then charged with abduction.
Julianne was shaken by the incident afterwards and said: “My heart dropped because I know that I saved my brother. He would not be here right now.”
She was indeed a brave little girl to act first before running to alert her parents; had she not done so, it might not have turned out too well for Hayden.
