Inset: Pamela Monslave (Broward County Jail). Background: An image from body-worn camera footage purports to show Monslave talking to the police (Hallandale Beach Police Department/WSVN).
A Florida woman is behind bars after literally, if briefly, kidnapping a toddler from a yard last month, police in the Sunshine State say.
Pamela Monslave, 39, was originally accused of one count of confining a child under 13 years old without the consent of a parent, according to authorities in Broward County. Later, a judge determined there was probable cause to support a charge of kidnapping.
Now, body-worn camera footage from her arrest has been released.
The incident occurred on Nov. 25 in Hallandale Beach, a medium-sized city along the coast.
The defendant is accused of picking up the boy and walking away with him. She allegedly set the child back down after two witnesses alerted his mother, who was inside the house at the time, about what had happened to her son.
“I can’t imagine what act can cause more extreme fear, distress in a parent than having somebody, not knowing who, go into their property, their fenced-in property and removing their 3-year-old child,” a prosecutor told a judge at a bond hearing, according to a courtroom report by Miami-based Fox affiliate WSVN.
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At the end of the hearing, a judge ordered the defendant held without bond, according to Miami-based NBC affiliate WTVJ.
This week, footage of Monslave’s arrest was obtained from the Hallandale Beach Police Department and published by WSVN.
“He was outside,” she can be heard saying in the footage. “He was naked. He was like — with a shirt. Everything was naked and I asked for the people around to call police and nobody would call police. And I told the little boy ‘Where’s your mom?’ and he said no.”
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An officer responded to the explanation by asking: “So where’s the little boy now?”
To which Monslave replied: “Well, they were — I got the little boy and everybody was like, ‘Don’t get the little boy’ and I’m like, ‘I gave it back to the mom.””
Later, when quizzed as to where the child was found in the first place, the woman expresses something not entirely unlike confusion.
An officer asks: “Where’s the playground?”
Monslave replies: “Near the — outside the — the — outside the — when the mom came out I gave it back.”
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Police say there is no preexisting relationship between the defendant and the family of the toddler in the case.
“Make sure you pay attention to your kids, your surroundings, make sure you know your neighbors and your neighbors know you,” Hallandale Beach Police Capt. Megan Jones said in a statement. “This is an example of ‘know thy neighbor’ and those neighbors were able to help prevent this child from being permanently taken.”
Monslave is being detained in the Broward County Jail with no bond.
