A man saved a six year old girl from being kidnapped

[gmyers]

A man came home early from work and then had to go to a relatives to wash clothes. While he was there they heard someone screaming that a man had grabbed a six year old girl and threw her in his van. He chased the van and it ran off the road and the kidnapper jumped out and ran away. The man took the little girl home to her family. They caught the twenty-nine year old man that had tried to kidnap her. I read about this on yahoo today. Thank goodness the man came home early and went to his relatives to wash clothes or we would probably be reading about another missing or dead child.

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[BeanieLuvR]

He was truly a hero to chase after the van to save her. It is nice to hear about something good happening for once. I'm glad they caught the guy.

[Eyore]

I'm glad he was able to rescue her. To many kids being kidnapped any more.

http://articles.cnn.com/2011-08-17/j...le?_s=PM:CRIME

A 6-year-old girl rescued from a suspected kidnapper in New Mexico is scared but doing well, according to her older sister.
"She sometimes cries. She gets scared. She's sorta afraid to go outside but she's doing all right," the victim's sister told CNN affiliate KOAT.
The man who is given credit for rescuing the girl -- Antonio Diaz Chacon, who gave chase in his own truck after witnessing the attempted abduction -- says he is "happy and content" that he was able to step in.





The incident occurred Monday night in southwest Albuquerque, when the girl went to a neighbor's house to pick up a package of tostadas.
Diaz said he noticed a commotion when a man grabbed the girl. Speaking with CNN as his wife, Martha, interpreted, he said in Spanish that he heard a neighbor yelling "Let her go, she's not yours!"
Diaz said he saw the man cover the girl's mouth and place her in a blue van, according to an Albuquerque Police report. Diaz told CNN that he was only 10 or 15 feet away from the van when the incident occurred.
"We heard a man going 'Hey, hey, let her go,' " Martha Diaz told a 911 dispatcher. "The man came running to us. He said, 'They stole our little girl.' "
"My husband went after him," she said.
Martha Diaz said her husband told her, "I don't care what I'm going to do. I'm just going to block the way. I'm going to stop him."
As Antonio Diaz followed the man, police received frantic 911 calls from his wife and from a 12-year-old sibling of the kidnapped girl.
"What's wrong?" the 911 operator asks in a recorded call.
"My little sister is missing," the sibling says. "She went to go to the neighbors. ... The neighbor is right here ... and when she was coming back, or on her way, she just like disappeared."
Diaz chased the van for several miles before it crashed into a light pole, allowing Diaz to catch up and rescue the girl, police said.
The suspect fled down the roadway and got stuck on a mesa before being apprehended, police said, adding that a search of the van found a package of tostadas like the ones the girl went to get.
Police said Phillip Garcia, 29, was charged with kidnapping, child abuse and tampering with evidence and was being held. He made his first court appearance in Albuquerque Wednesday. CNN affiliates said the tampering charge was dismissed.
Martha Diaz said her husband told her the little girl didn't seem to realize she had been rescued at first. "I think she realized later," she said, "Because when he went up to her, she was on the floor of the van crying. When he went up to her she said 'Where are we? Where are we?' and he said, 'I don't know where we are either but I'm going to get you out of here now.' "
The girl's father said he appreciates what Diaz did, that he feels lucky and "thanks God a lot," according to the victim's older sister.
But Diaz says he is not a hero. His wife told CNN, "He says everybody is calling him a hero but he feels he is just a normal person who did something for that little girl that anybody could or should have done."

[sdb_ngc]

God bless this man for saving her.

[gmyers]

They said on the news today that people were sending him money from all over the United States and a repair shop fixed their washer for free. I believe he deserves this and a lot more.

[Jolie Rouge]

New Mexico hero who saved girl says he's illegal
By JERI CLAUSING - Associated Press | AP – 1 hr 38 mins ago

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — The man who chased down a suspected child abductor and saved a 6-year-old girl from what could have been a horrible fate was honored as a hero Friday. But he is also gaining a new kind of celebrity: as a poster child of sorts for immigration rights in state and national immigration debates. Antonio Diaz Chacon, 23, is married to an American and has been in the country for four years. But Chacon says he abandoned attempts to get legal residency because the process was difficult and expensive.

Diaz Chacon revealed his immigration status to Univision this week and confirmed to The Associated Press that he is illegal, prompting chatter on the Internet and social networking sites that his case underscored immigrant rights positions in two ongoing political debates. Some argue he is an example of the kind of immigrant the federal government will now largely leave alone. The Department of Homeland Security announced Thursday that deportations would focus on criminals.

"As exceptional as his story is," said Christina Parker, a spokeswoman for Border Network for Human Rights in El Paso, Texas, "it points to the fact that most undocumented immigrants living in the United States are not criminals. He's more than not a criminal now. He's a hero."

Others used it to blast New Mexico Gov. Susana Martinez's ongoing attempts to repeal a state law that allows illegal immigrants to obtain a driver's license. The governor has put the repeal, which was defeated in the regular session earlier this year, on the agenda for a September special session. "Most are just working to support their families and to take away their driver's license would be detrimental to that," Parker said.

Diaz Chacon's status didn't play a role in Albuquerque's decision to honor his bravery. Mayor Richard Berry declared Friday Antonio Diaz Chacon Day in Albuquerque and held an afternoon ceremony where he presented Diaz Chacon a Spanish language plaque recognizing his bravery in jumping in his pickup and chasing the suspect until he crashed into a light pole. Diaz Chacon then rescued the girl as the driver of the disabled van ran into the desert. The suspect was arrested later by police.

Diaz Chacon, with his wife and two daughters, was all smiles at the ceremony, which was also attended by the officers who eventually arrested accused kidnapper Phillip Garcia, 29. "He says he is really happy and content and there's no larger words for it," his wife Martha, who was translating from Spanish for him, said. "It is a real large happiness."

Asked in a telephone interview with the AP Thursday what would be the best reward for his actions, he said he had already gotten it: a thank you letter from the little girl.

In deciding to hold the ceremony, city officials said the question of Diaz Chacon's immigration status never even came up. Nor was it mentioned at the event. "Today's proclamation for Mr. Diaz Chacon is to celebrate the heroic actions that he demonstrated when he saved the life of a 6-year-old girl in danger," the mayor's spokesman, Chris Ramirez, said in a statement. "Mayor Berry is proud of Mr. Diaz Chacon's actions and joins the community in honoring his heroism."

The governor's office said its position was unchanged and accused "special interest groups shamefully exploiting this man, who may or may not be here illegally, to further their cause."

In a statement, the governor also cited "a litany of well-documented cases of this policy that put the public at risk, one of which occurred literally a few blocks away at a Denny's restaurant in 2009 when gang members from El Salvador who had driver's licenses committed a murder."

Marcela Diaz, with the Santa Fe-based Somos Un Pueblo Unido, said the larger question was the fact that Diaz Chacon could acknowledge to being illegal in New Mexico without fear of being deported, but the same might not be the case in other states. "The question I would ask is, 'Would this have played out the same way if we were in Arizona, or Georgia or Alabama?'" she asked.

For his part, Diaz Chacon isn't worried and said he doesn't regret saving the girl. "I'm not worried. Why should I?" he said. "It's not like I committed a murder or a felony."

http://news.yahoo.com/mexico-hero-sa...200141585.html

note - Yahoo has disabled the comments section for this article

[gmyers]

I wonder why they disabled the comments section. I told my husband when he couldn't speak english I wondered if he was an illegal alien. But I'm still glad he saved the girl.

[Jolie Rouge]

They tend to disable the comments when tone of the posters are not the views that Yahoo wishes to hear expressed.

If the guy has been here for four years, married to an American... why hasn't he learned to speak English ? What do their two children speak ? Hopefully, they are learning both.

[dv8grl]

English is not the official language of the United States. New Mexico was part of Mexico at one time, along with most the SouthWest and West Coast.
This man probably never finished the sixth grade in Mexico, English is not an easy language to learn.
If his wife is American then why isn't he? Because he doesn't have time to wait down at INS for hours, days, weeks...Plus, it cost a ton of money to become a citizen.
I'm sure his kids are learning both languages. Most kids these days should be learning both languages. It never hurts to learn.

[Jolie Rouge]

If I went on vacation to a foreign country, I would take the time and trouble to learn key phrases. If I were going to live in another country, I would learn the common language. English has been the recognised language for over 200 years... the only reason it isn't "official" is that for years no one saw the need to canonize it and now it is deemed "politically incorrect" and no one wants the bad press and MSM hoopla when it is suggested.