Man kidnaps mom, toddler from mall parking lot, forces her to drive to bank, TX cops say

A Texas man kidnapped a mother and her 2-year-old daughter from a mall parking lot, forcing the woman to drive to a bank to withdraw money, authorities said.

The 26-year-old woman told officers she was approached by a man she didn’t know in the parking lot of Cielo Vista Mall as she was putting her 2-year-old daughter in her car seat, according to a Sept. 16 news release from the El Paso Police Department.

The mother said the man, later identified as 52-year-old Victor Hugo Escobedo of El Paso, brandished a handgun and told her to get into her truck and drive to the bank, police said of the Sept. 6 incident.

Fearing “for her life and the life of her daughter,” the woman went inside and made a withdrawal while Escobedo stayed in the car with the toddler, according to police.

Escobedo then made the woman drive him back to the mall before fleeing with her money and her phone, police said.

He was arrested on charges of aggravated robbery and two counts of aggravated kidnapping with a deadly weapon, police said.



McClatchy News was unable to locate attorney information for Escobedo.

He is being held at the El Paso County Detention Facility on three bonds totaling $550,000, according to police.

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