A 31-year-old man was charged with kidnapping Thursday, a day after the mother of a snatched 4-year-old girl chased down a car and rammed it with her own.

Albuquerque police said David Jesus Hernandez ran away after the crash. According to authorities, the victim's mother did not realize he had pushed the child from his car while fleeing the apartment complex where the girl had been taken.

David Jesus Hernandez, 31, is wanted for questioning in a child kidnapping that took place Wednesday in Albuquerque.

A manhunt for Hernandez ended Thursday night when he turned himself in.

Hernandez was being held Friday on charges of kidnapping and child abuse, according to the Metropolitan Detention Center in Albuquerque.

Police said they were investigating a "possible connection" between Wednesday's incident and one last week in which a 6-year-old girl was kidnapped, driven away in a car and sexually assaulted.

In the latest incident, the victim was playing in her yard about 6:30 p.m. when a man forced her into a silver Buick, police said. As he took off, some teenagers hanging around outside ran inside and alerted the child's mother, police said.

As she jumped into her own car to chase the Buick, the suspect pushed the little girl out of his vehicle. The mother didn't notice and kept going after the man.

"She was involved in a high-speed pursuit," Police Chief Ray Schultz said.

After tearing down several streets, the mother rammed the Buick to get it to stop, police said. The driver jumped out and fled on foot.

"This appears to be a complete stranger abduction," Schultz said.

The 4-year-old was found wandering near the apartment complex.

Last week's incident also involved a man driving a silver or gray car, police said.

This story was originally published on Thu May 16, 2013 2:16 PM EDT

Interpol

Sean Lopes, 47, was arrested in Chatham, England, on Monday.

A fugitive wanted in New York after vanishing in the wake of a 2004 hostage taking has been arrested in England, where he had been working in a supermarket.

Sean Lopes, 47, had been living in Chatham, about 30 miles southeast of London, when he was arrested Monday, Kent Police said in a statement.

He was "wanted on charges of attempted murder and kidnapping in the United States" involving a 22-year-old woman dating June 2004, according to Kent Police.

Kent Police said Lopes was charged in the U.S. with the offense but went missing after being released on bail. He was sentenced in absentia to 15 years in prison in May 2005.

A 2012 news release from U.S. authorities said Lopes entered the home of an ex-girlfriend -- both were employed by New York City public schools -- and waited for her to come home. When she did, he confronted her with a gun and a knife and held her hostage until police were able to get into the apartment and free her, according to a 2012 statement from the U.S. Embassy in Trinidad and Tobago, where Lopes was mistakenly thought to have been living.

Lopes was believed to have fled to the island nation using his brother's travel documents, the embassy said.

Lopes had been working at a Sainsbury's grocery store in Gravesend, Kent, the company said Thursday. 

“We can confirm that a member of staff from our Pepper Hill store was arrested on Monday," a Sainsbury's spokeswoman said. "We are helping the police with their investigations but are unable to comment further.”

He had been listed as one of the NYPD's 10 most-wanted suspects.

Kent Police said a resident of the area raised concerns about Lopes to police, who launched an investigation that included investigators from New York and London. He was then tracked down and arrested.

Lopes appeared in a London court on Tuesday and was ordered to be detained as extradition proceedings got under way, Kent Police said.

According to Interpol, Lopes is a native of Guyana. The U.S. Embassy said he also had ties to Canada, the Bahamas and the Dominican Republic.

This story was originally published on Thu May 9, 2013 7:04 AM EDT

John Makely / NBC News

An FBI investigator exits the house on Seymour Ave.

CLEVELAND — It was the perfect place to hide three captives in plain sight.

In a rundown section of Cleveland, Ohio, police say three young women — Amanda Berry, Gina DeJesus and Michelle Knight — were held against their will in a white, two-story house for roughly a decade before Berry escaped Monday night and the other two were freed.

While some who lived and worked in the neighborhood described it as tight-knit, others spoke of a darker side.

Bill McNutt, 71, bought a house, gas station, and a now-abandoned block of apartments on Seymour Ave. about 40 years ago. The retired software engineer said he's seen plenty of crime in the area -- from drug deals to shootings, some in properties he rented.

He was surprised not so much by the women's captivity but by how much time transpired before they were found.

"Does it shock me?" he said. "Well, I don't know. Ten years shocks me."

The three women vanished between August 2002 and April 2004 in separate incidents; they were between 14 and 20 years old. Authorities have arrested three brothers: Ariel Castro, 52, Pedro Castro, 54, and Onil Castro, 50.

John Makely / NBC News

Vladimir Swirynsky, who lives just a couple of blocks away from where one of the victim's homes holds a huge sign so that drivers on 25th street could offer support for the the missing girls who were found on Monday. "We never gave up hope," he said.

The neighborhood has seen better days. The two houses to the right of the one where the women were allegedly held are boarded up and dilapidated. A three-story apartment building down the block is vacant.

"That was a perfect place for him because people couldn't hear any noise," said Khalid Samad, a community organizer.

Samad said Ariel Castro had even accompanied him on searches in the area for the missing women. He said that by the neighborhood's standards, Castro's job as a bus driver made him relatively well-off.

"In terms of money he probably made more money than anyone else on the street when he was driving the bus," Samad said.

Jennifer Faykus, 34, said she knew the sister of Gina DeJesus, who police say was held in the house after disappearing in 2004.

Faykus used to live in the area but moved away because it stopped being the kind of neighborhood where people talked to each other.

John Makely / NBC News

Julio Castro, 77, uncle to the three suspects arrested in relation to the abductions.
Castro owns a corner grocery store less than a block away from the home the girls escaped from on Seymour ave.

"In this kind of neighborhood you don't [pry into other people's business] because you're afraid to talk to your neighbors," she said.

Her husband, Felix Faykus, said they'd passed out fliers for the missing girls in the neighborhood.

Justin Owens lives behind the house police searched Tuesday, but another building stands between his home and the yard police kept cordoned off.

"Never saw no girls back there, never heard anything," he said. "It was all a shock to me."

The 34-year-old roofer moved to the neighborhood about a year ago. The first thing he thought of when he heard the news were his own daughters, ages 12 and 8.

About half a block away on Castle Ave, the residents of an old-persons home called Scranton Castle were just as surprised — including some who knew the suspects.

Johnnie Sanchez said he grew up in the neighborhood and knew the Castro family. He'd go and talk to the Castro brothers' uncle at his corner store, about half a block from the house where the women were found. Sanchez said he had known the brothers since he was 7 or 8 years old, but he hadn't seen Ariel Castro in about five years, even though he lived just a half dozen houses away.

"We used to go to parties and he would play the timbales," Sanchez, 54, said of Ariel. "The Castro family are a real good family."

John Makely / NBC News

Noel Ruiz Sr, the great uncle of Gina DeJesus, sips a Corona just down the block from the home where she had been held captive until yesterday.

At Caribe grocery store on the corner of Seymour Ave., Julio Castro, 77, who identified himself as the uncle of the suspects, said he hadn't spoken to Ariel Castro in six years and that the arrests came as a "terrible, terrible, terrible surprise."

He's owned the corner store for more than four decades, he said.

"I say, 'How can you do this to our family?'" he said he would ask his nephews. "We are a large family, a respected family. Shame on you."

Noel Ruiz Sr, a great uncle of Gina DeJesus, on Tuesday afternoon sipped a Corona beer at Castro's corner store — which he said he'd becoming to for decades — as he and about a dozen patrons watched the stream of news updates being broadcast from across 25th street.

"We used to throw parties here", Ruiz said. "Our family took a big hit when it happened, but, you know, everyone in my family believes in God ... our prayers were answered.  Thank God Gina's alive."

Additional reporting by John Makely

Slideshow: Missing women found alive in Cleveland

Tony Dejak / AP

A daring escape and a dramatic 911 call led to the rescue of three women who allegedly had been held captive for years inside a home in Cleveland, Ohio.

Launch slideshow

PHILADELPHIA -- A quick-thinking bank teller is being credited with helping to save the lives of seven people who were being held hostage. 

Police say three gunmen broke into the Levittown Trace Apartments on Ford Road in Pennsylvania's Bristol Township early Monday morning. The men, identified as 38-year-old Orlando McNeil, 21-year-old Daesean Smith and 18-year-old Dennis Redding, allegedly held four adults and three children hostage at gunpoint inside the complex. Police say the group, which included two toddlers, was held captive for over nine hours.

According to the Philly Burbs, one of the victims had recently received an $80,000 payout on his late mother’s life insurance policy. Police say the men demanded that he withdraw the entire amount or they would harm his family.

Police say the victim went to a nearby PNC Bank around 10 a.m. on Monday and asked the teller for $80,000 in cash, claiming his family and friends had been kidnapped. That’s when, police say, the bank teller sprang into action.

“The alert teller contacted the police,” said Lieutenant Terry Hughes of the Bristol Township Police Department. “At that point we happened to be in the area and at the right place at the right time.”

More news from NBC10.com

Officers responded to the apartment where they found the three suspects. Police say Smith and Redding tried to flee but were quickly captured while McNeil managed to escape. He was later found and arrested Monday night. Investigators say McNeil was the mastermind behind the kidnapping and ransom scheme. Police also say they recovered two guns near the complex.

The three men are charged with kidnapping, robbery, burglary and other related offenses

Phelan M. Ebenhack / AP

Patricia, left, and Robert Hauser, right, escort their grandchildren, Chase Hakken, 2, second from left, and Cole, 4, during a news conference outside their home in Tampa, Fla.

The two little Florida boys spirited away to Cuba by their parents think the ordeal was a vacation and have no idea they were the subject of an international search, their grandparents said Thursday.

"We haven't asked the boys anything about the journey," Patricia Hauser told reporters at a press conference with her husband Bob. "We're just letting them tell us as things come out, if they feel like talking. We're just treating it like a vacation."

Hillsborough Co. Sheriff via AP

Joshua and Sharyn Hakken, charged with kidnapping their young sons after losing custody, made their first court appearance Thursday since Cuban authorities turned them over to the U.S.

She spoke a few hours after the boys' parents, Joshua and Sharyn Hakken, made their first courtroom appearance.

Joshua Hakken, 35, is accused of kidnapping 2-year-old Chase and 4-year-old Cole from Hausers, who had custody of the boys. He allegedly tied up Patricia Hauser.

Authorities say he and his wife then sailed with the boys in a 25-foot boat to Cuba, arriving Sunday in bad weather. By Tuesday, officials in Havana had decided to hand the family over to American authorities even though Cuba doesn't have an extradition treaty or formal diplomatic relations with the United States.

The Hakkens are charged with kidnapping, child neglect, false imprisonment, burglary and interference with custody. A judge ordered them held without bond until a detention hearing Friday.

The couple lost custody of the kids last year after the armed father was arrested in a Lousiana hotel room on drug possession and other charges and told authorities that he and his wife had been planning "a journey to the Armageddon,” police said.

Before the children went to live with their maternal grandparents, Joshua Hakken allegedly tried to kidnap them at gunpoint from a foster home and was wanted on a warrant when he fled with them to Cuba.

Friends of the couple told The Associated Press they were mystified by the episode.

"This is a train that went completely off the tracks, and I don't have any explanation for how it can go off the track that badly basically in a year and a half. It's very bizarre," said Darrell Hanecki, who was Sharyn Hakken's boss for nearly a decade, told The Associated Press.

Joshua Hakken was a U.S. Air Force Academy dropout who worked as an engineer before starting his own company.

The Associated Press contributed to this story.

This story was originally published on Thu Apr 11, 2013 10:22 AM EDT

The couple accused of running off with their two young sons, causing a massive search that ended in Cuba on Tuesday, has returned to the United States and been placed under arrest.

Joshua and Sharyn Hakken were arrested by the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s office in Florida and jailed on charges that included child neglect, kidnapping, and burglary, according to records maintained by the sheriff’s office.

Their two boys, ages 2 and 4, were expected to be returned to their grandparents on Wednesday. The boys' grandfather, Bob Hauser, thanked authorities for the wide-ranging, multi-state search that brought the two boys home.

“We are very appreciative of that, and it was very, very comforting to my wife and I to know that that was going on,” Hauser said.

Police say Joshua Hakken tied his mother-in-law up around 6:00 a.m. last Wednesday in Tampa and drove off with the two children, who were still in their pajamas. After ditching a black pickup truck that was later recovered by police, the Hakkens apparently boarded a blue 25-foot sailboat and left John's Pass Marina in Madeira Beach, Fla., bound for Cuba.

Baynews9 via AP

This frame grabbed image provided by Baynews9 shows Sharyn Hakken being processed for booking into the Hillsborough County Jail early Wednesday morning.

News cameras caught a bearded Joshua Hakken with his wife in Havana on Tuesday before authorities turned the couple and their kids over. The family did not appear to be in distress when spotted at the city’s Marina Hemingway, though a heavy Cuban security presence limited access to the docks.

The Cuban Ministry of Foreign Relations decided to turn the couple over to U.S. authorities early on Tuesday morning.

“After news reports surfaced of the Hakken couple’s association with a kidnapping case, the Cuban authorities communicated their presence in the country,” ministry official Johana Tablada said in a statement. The ministry exchanged information with the U.S. Interests Section in Havana “to try to guarantee the integrity and well-being of those minors,” he said.

The U.S. Interests Section in Havana acknowledged the safe return of two young children in a statement, but declined to go into specifics.

“Tonight, thanks to a joint effort of the Department of State, FBI, and U.S. Coast Guard, two U.S. citizen children are safely on their way home,” the Interests Section said in a statement.  “We would like to express our appreciation to the Cuban authorities for their extensive cooperation to resolve this dangerous situation quickly.”

Related:

• Couple who allegedly abducted children return from Cuba
• Officials: 'Anti-government' couple may be at sea with kidnapped children
• Pickup found in suspected Florida double kidnapping

A 34-year-old Brooklyn man reported missing about two weeks ago has been charged with faking his own kidnapping — and he may have concocted the whole story to avoid his girlfriend's wrath.

The New York Police Department told NBC News that Rahmel Wallace, who also goes by the name Rahmel Pettway, was arrested Feb. 28 and charged with a misdemeanor count of filing a false report after admitting to police that he faked his disappearance.

A police spokeswoman said Wallace, once in custody, admitted he had faked the kidnapping. The New York Post reported that Wallace made up the story to explain his absence to his girlfriend.

Police sources told the Post that Wallace was found hog-tied, with his hands, legs and mouth covered in duct tape, a few blocks from his Bedford-Stuyvesant home early Thursday morning.

Police were initially skeptical of the kidnapping story after noticing a roll of duct tape hanging from Wallace's wrist, according to the Post.

“He’s a total moron,” a law-enforcement source told the paper. “It was a pathetic attempt to pull the wool [over] her eyes.”

Wallace first told police he couldn't remember what happened to him, then indicated he had been kidnapped by two men in blue minivan on Feb. 19, the Post said.

Fresno Police Department

Five of the seven children missing from Fresno, Calif.

Police believe the seven children who vanished from their Fresno, Calif., home on Saturday were taken by their estranged father.

Ranging in age from 5 to 12, the kids were left at home while their mother and stepfather went to a grocery store, according to the Fresno Police Department.

Police believe that their biological father "picked up all of the children." He was identified as Xa Yang and is thought to live in Sacramento, about 170 miles north of Fresno.

Neither authorities nor the children's mother had been able to contact the father, who had not been involved in the children's lives "for at least three years," according to a police statement.

Because the seven children, along with their belongings, were removed from an apartment complex in the early evening without any
apparent commotion, investigators do not suspect foul play.

There was no immediate concern for the children's safety, police said.

While they have not issued an "Amber Alert," which are normally issued in suspected abductions, police are seeking the
public's help.

Anyone with information can call Detective Josh Mendizabal at (559) 621-2499 or (559) 621-7000.

LOS ANGELES -- An 11-year-old girl was able to escape from her kidnapper’s car on Thursday and free another young girl who was already in the backseat crying when the victim was forcibly pulled into the attacker’s red convertible, according to police.

The girl was walking alone at 2:35 p.m. local time (5:35 p.m. ET) by Founders Park in Whittier, Calif., when she was grabbed and thrown into the backseat of a car, where a younger girl -- about 7 years old -- was already seated, officials said in a news release.

"She knew at that point, I guess, that she was in a bad spot," said Lt. Kent Miller with Whittier police.

Miller said he was not sure about the circumstances that led to the girls’ escape, saying there was an "opportunity" and the pair, who did not know each other, ran in opposite directions.

The 11-year-old ran home and called 911. Police are unsure of where the other girl is, though the department has not received any reports of missing children.

Police believe the man may be responsible for similar incidents in the area and are asking for the public’s help in identifying him.

On the morning of Feb. 5, a 17-year-old girl was offered a ride from a man driving a red convertible. When she declined, the driver stopped the car and opened the door before the girl fled and called police.

More news from NBCLosAngeles.com

That incident happened at 11:35 a.m. in the 13000 block of Broadway, several blocks from where Thursday’s attack occurred, police said.

Hours later at 4:40 p.m., a witness reported seeing two high-school-aged girls get into a verbal confrontation with a man who ordered the pair to get into his car in the 6700 block of Washington Avenue.

Police said the witness did not get the girls’ names and the department did not receive any calls from the alleged victims in this case.

In all three incidents, the man was seen driving a red convertible with a tan roof. He is described as Latino, between 25 and 35 years old, about 5 feet 11 inches to 6 feet tall, with a medium to heavy build.

Thursday’s victim said the man had short black hair and a tattoo of three dots on his left hand.

Anyone with information about the attack is asked to call the Whittier Police Department at 562-567-9241 or Detective Woods at 562-567-9286.

Published at 5:09 a.m. ET: One of the best-known child kidnapping cases in the country is back in the news.

San Francisco Police Chief Greg Suhr held a news conference Wednesday to announce they now have a "person of interest" in the 1984 disappearance of 10-year-old Kevin Collins. He was last seen walking home from a basketball game and has not been since. His face was one of the earliest to be put on the back of milk cartons across the country in the search for missing children.

"This case is a case that haunts the San Francisco Police Department," Suhr said.

Suhr identified the man as Dan Therrien, who lived in a home just a couple of blocks from where Kevin was last seen in 1984, near the corner of Masonic Avenue and Page Street in the Haight-Ashbury neighborhood. Therrien died in 2008.

Complicating matters, Therrien went by at least five aliases. Police said he used the name Wayne Jackson at the time of Kevin's disappearance.

San Francisco Police

San Francisco Police Chief Greg Suhr held a news conference Wednesday to announce a "person of interest" -- Dan Therrien, shown in 1982 -- in the 1984 kidnapping of 10-year-old Kevin Collins.

Police stopped short of calling him a suspect, and instead said he was a "person of interest." Suhr also asked for the public's help in coming up with any information that might be relevant to the case.

At the conference, police said that detectives realize this is a long shot, but they're just hoping someone will remember him.

Investigators looking at the case recently realized Therrien had a lengthy criminal past in both California and Canada, including a felony for a lewd act on a child. They didn't know that at the time because he had used other names. Police said that in 1981 he had served six months in jail after pleading guilty to a felony charge of a lewd act on a child. The victim was 7 years old.

The Canadian case was also previously unknown: He was arrested in 1973 on suspicion of kidnapping and sexually assaulting two 13-year-old boys.

In the Canadian case Therrien -- whom police also identified Wednesday as Wayne Jackson -- went on the lam and was never arrested. Police didn't release where it happened in Canada or any other details.

More news from NBCBayArea.com

Therrien was eyed by police at the time of Kevin's kidnapping, according to sources, and he had consented to a search at the time. But he was never formally arrested or named a suspect in Kevin's disappearance.

Kevin's story captured national attention. He was last seen was on his way home from a basketball practice at St. Agnes School in the Haight-Ashbury neighborhood. He was talking to a man with blond hair and a large black dog, waiting for a bus at the corner of Oak Street and Masonic Avenue. Normally his older brother would have been with him, but that day his brother was home sick.

Police said Therrien matched the general description of that man and had a black dog at the time.

Last month, San Francisco police searched the home where Therrien lived in 1984 and removed several bones that were located under concrete in the garage. But those bones turned out to be from a small animal.

Cold-case investigators said last week that they realized recently that cadaver dogs were never used when the home was searched in the 1980s.

On Tuesday night, the the lead cold-case investigator visited the home of Kevin's mother. Investigators spent a couple of hours with the boy's family and left without comment. They said they showed the family photos of Therrien at the time Kevin went missing to see if they family might have known him.

Kevin Collins would have been 39 years old on Jan. 24.

"What we're looking for now is anybody that saw this guy in 1984, anybody that talked to this guy back in 1984, anybody that talked to somebody that talked to this guy back in 1984," Suhr said. "We would love to find the whereabouts of that little boy."

Anyone with information on this matter can contact the SFPD Major Crimes Unit at (415) 553-1145. Information can be given anonymously at (415) 575-4444.

Aliases:

• Raymond William Stewart – DOB: 1947
• Kelley Lee Dawson – DOB: 1947
• Wayne Jackson (name he gave police in 1984) – DOB: 1954
• Kelley Sean Stewart – DOB: 1949
• Dan Leonard Therrien (name he died under) – DOB: 1956