BURLINGTON, Vt. (WCAX) – A Colchester woman faces possible kidnapping charges after police say she took a toddler from a Burlington apartment in broad daylight.
It happened at the Bobbin Mill Apartments Tuesday afternoon. Police say the 3-year-old was playing outside with other children when 33-year-old Truc Mai went up to her and took her. They say Mai had been playing with the child, whom she didn’t know.
Investigators say video surveillance showed Mai walking off with the child just before 4 p.m. Other children went and told the child’s mother, but police say it was at least an hour before they were called.
Investigators say Mai returned the child just after 5 p.m.– unharmed. Court paperwork says Mai told police she saw the toddler and felt she needed to take care of her. She added that she felt she could have been the biological mother.
Mai was ordered to undergo an emergency mental health screening.
“I also believe that mental health crises have been afoot in a lot of the behavior that this person has presented,” said Burlington Interim Police Chief Shawn Burke. “I do believe that there’s also criminality that needs to be addressed by the criminal legal system.”
A judge ordered that Mai be held without bail, but she has not been arraigned yet. Court documents indicate she may be at the University of Vermont Medical Center.
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