A brave couple fended off a homeless man who tried to snatch their 2-year-old son from his stroller in Brooklyn, cops said Thursday.
Matthew Wally, 27, approached the mom and dad Wednesday night as they were waiting for the light to cross Eastern Parkway near Grand Army Plaza, cops said.
Wally grabbed the stroller and held it away from the terrified mom, telling her “Give me your baby. Give me your baby,” according to the Brooklyn Assistant District Attorney Jordan Rossman.
This prompted a tug of war between Wally and the boy’s father, Arthur Kremer, prosecutors said.
“The father struggled over the baby’s stroller for 20 to 30 seconds,” Rossman said.
The terrified mom screamed, causing Wally to bolt, cops said.
He was later found him hiding in a Gap store near Grand Army Plaza just after 8:50 p.m.
The homeless man originally told police that he meant no harm to baby Theo, and that this type of behavior was considered acceptable on the other side of the East River, prosecutors said.
“I was just playing with the baby,” he told police, according to Rossman. “I’ve done this in Manhattan. I never had a problem.”
But Wally, who lives at Samaritan Village men’s shelter on Myrtle Ave. in Bedford-Stuyvesant, had a change of heart during his arraignment Thursday night.
“Oh s–t. That’s crazy. That’s crazy. That’s wild,” Wally said in disbelief after hearing the prosecutor’s account of events.
He was charged with attempted kidnapping, attempted unlawful imprisonment and child endangerment charges.
His lawyer, William Folks, said his client was just trying to help.
“To grab the bottom of the stroller does not equal I’m trying to take your child from you,” Folks said. “That does not equate to my client trying to steal their baby.”
“My client had no desire to steal a baby,” the lawyer added. “He didn’t at any point in time touch the baby.”
Wally also faces charges from a May 30 shoplifting arrest, when he was accused in a string of thefts from Sephora stores in Manhattan.
