Nice uncle by day, this man became a beast by night
Colorado (USA) - Thomas Gallegos pretended to be a helpful neighbor during the day, helping a mother and her eight-year-old daughter plug in the washing machine and dryer. One night, the 56-year-old turned into a beast.
One week after the American had played nice uncle, he returned to the home of the little family in Sterling (US state of Colorado).
As CBS News reported, citing police reports, Gallegos entered the mother and daughter's home on October 15 wearing a clown mask and tried to abduct the eight-year-old from her nursery.
When the girl began to fight back, Gallegos allegedly hit her on the head and tried to choke her. In vain! The 56-year-old lost the fight with the primary school pupil and had to flee. But not without taking the girl's cell phone.
Before the police arrived, the man had already left the scene. The eight-year-old suffered cuts and bruises from the cowardly attack.
Police searched for the burglar with the clown mask for four days
It took the investigators a whole four days to track Gallegos down. And this despite the fact that the man is said to have lived in the immediate vicinity. The stolen cell phone was discovered first - the 56-year-old had thrown it away near a highway. He left a clown mask and gloves at the crime scene, both covered in traces of DNA.
"A significant amount of digital, forensic and physical evidence led to the identification and arrest of a suspect," Sterling police wrote in a statement on Facebook.
Gallegos was eventually arrested and is now facing charges including burglary and attempted kidnapping.