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Neighbors on lookout for a kidnapper
By MOLLY MOORHEAD LAND O'LAKES -- The attempted kidnapping of 3-year-old Matthew Nguyen didn't sit well with neighbors in his Oak Grove community, and it didn't go unnoticed by the national news media. Phu and Theresa Nguyen, whose son was nearly abducted from his bed early Wednesday morning, are headed to New York with their four children for an appearance today on Good Morning America. "It's kind of overwhelming," said Theresa Nguyen, who confronted the stranger as he carried Matthew out of his bedroom. The family has been in a whirlwind since the incident, with a constant stream of reporters, sheriff's investigators and security system installers in and out of the house. On Thursday, the couple's three daughters stayed home from school again. A television news truck sat parked outside the house for half the day. And men from a home security company drilled holes and climbed around on the roof of the house. Matthew lay on the floor in front of the television watching his favorite shows. "He's trying to soak up any bit of normalcy he can," his mother said. Matthew slept with his parents on Wednesday night. He won't sleep in his bed without his Winnie-the-Pooh sheets, which investigators took for analysis, Theresa Nguyen said. Three houses down on Silkbay Court, Karen Gomez is getting used to a different routine for herself and her two young daughters. Gabriela, 8, and Arianna, 5, slept in their parents' bed on Wednesday night, too. "My girls are really nervous about the whole thing," Gomez said. Gomez has a security system in her house, but she said that after the workers were finished at the Nguyens', she was having them come to her home to install more sensors. Gomez used to take her daughters on bicycle rides in the afternoons before her husband arrived home from work. With the possibility of a kidnapper in the neighborhood, she's too afraid to do that. "It's limiting our way of life," she said. That sentiment apparently is shared by people throughout Oak Grove, said John Robinson, president of the neighborhood crime watch program. He's had a huge response from concerned residents. "When it's a child, more people get involved. You feel that they've attacked your family," Robinson said as he peered suspiciously at a passing car he didn't recognize. The night of the incident, residents called one another using a phone chain and poured out onto the streets in search of the culprit. "In five minutes, this place was closed up tight," Robinson said. But that was apparently enough time for the would-be kidnapper to escape. Pasco County sheriff's deputies had not made any arrests as of Thursday and were continuing to investigate. They had received just two tips on the case, neither one fruitful, spokesman Jon Powers said. -- Molly Moorhead covers crime in east Pasco. She can be reached at (352) 521-5757, ext. 29, or toll-free at 1-800-333-7505, ext. 6108, then 29. Her e-mail address is moorhead@sptimes.com .
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From today's Pasco Times Letters |
