KTLA

Torrance neighbor called 911 to report a Latino man was kidnapping a white baby; the toddler was his grandson

Abel Mata holds his grandson, Milo Walker, while sitting with his daughter, Athena Mata, and son-in-law, Justin Walker, on the patriarch’s front porch in Torrance. (Gabriella Angotti-Jones / Los Angeles Times)

Police vehicles surrounded Abel Mata on a sunny afternoon outside his Torrance home. Officers wanted to know the identity of the child he’d been holding moments before.

A neighbor had called 911 to report that a Latino man had kidnapped a white baby.

A stunned Mata was forced to explain: The child was his grandson. Mata’s daughter, Athena, had dropped 2-year-old Milo off for babysitting, as she did routinely, and the boy was inside the house with his grandmother.

As Mata and the officers walked toward the door, a blond woman came out of a neighboring apartment and approached them, shouting that he was the abductor. She carried a samurai sword, Mata said.

Read the full story on LATimes.com.