Man forces woman caring for 1-year-old to withdraw money from northeast Fresno ATM

A nanny and the 1-year-old she was caring for were kidnapped Friday morning by a man who forced her to take money out of a northeast Fresno ATM, police said.

Lt. Mike Brogdon said the man let the woman and child go and drove off in the woman's car. Now, he is the subject of a statewide search.

Brogdon said police received a call at 11:17 a.m. reporting a carjacking that had ended at the Wells Fargo ATM in the shopping center on the northeast corner of Champlain and Shepherd avenues.

Brogdon said the victim, 24, told officers she had taken the child out in a stroller and was walking around the neighborhood in the area of Ft. Washington Drive and Champlain when she crossed paths with the man but thought nothing of it. She lives at the home of the child and is a family friend of the child’s parents and cares for the child when the parents are at work, she told police.

When she got back home, she was approached by the man who asked her for water. He was a stranger to her, police said. She gave him a bottle of water but then he asked her for money. She said she didn’t have any and became worried.

"She tried to get the 1-year-old in the stroller into the house for safety," Brogdon said.

But the man pulled out a knife and forced his way in, Brogdon said. An altercation took place inside and the man grabbed her and she was roughed up but not stabbed, Brogdon said.

The man forced the woman and the child into her car, a maroon or burgundy 2009 Mitsubishi Montero, and he drove it to the Wells Fargo ATM kiosk at Champlain and Shepherd and withdrew money from her account.

He said he wanted to go to Southern California and wanted her to go with him and would drop her off on Highway 99 but "she convinced him to let her and the kid out at this point," Brogdon said.

The man drove away and the woman ran to the EZ Fit Meals store next to the kiosk, where an employee called 911.

The car's California license plate is 6NMG705. A statewide bulletin has been issued. The man is described as a heavyset white male in his 40s, 5 feet 6 inches and about 170 pounds, and balding. He wore a blue shirt and dark basketball shorts. No gun was seen but he's considered armed and dangerous, Brogdon said.

This story was originally published June 22, 2018 at 1:50 PM.