Forsyth County deputies arrested a 26-year-old Alpharetta man, Sunday morning, and charged him in connection with an attempted child abduction Saturday afternoon.
Shortly after 3 p.m. Saturday, the Forsyth County Sheriff's Office said they responded to an attempted child abduction at a Barnes and Noble bookstore at The Collections shopping center on Peachtree Parkway.
When deputies arrived, they said they were contacted by the father of the child who said he saw the suspect physically picking up his 3-and-a-half-year-old son inside the store and attempt to escape. The father told deputies he physically intervened, preventing the abduction attempt.
Multiple leads resulted in the arrest of Michael Fazio on Sunday. He was taken into custody without incident and transported to the Forsyth County Detention Center where he remains without bond.
Authorities are crediting surveillance video with helping them catch the suspect. In it, you can see the child's father walking to the register to pay for a book inside the store - with his child close behind him.
When he stops at the register, his son is still close. That's when the suspect comes around the corner into the shot.
"He follows the son over to this area, grabs him, bear hug, starts walking towards the exit," Forsyth County Sheriff's Office Doug Rainwater said. "That's when the father says, 'Hey, what are you doing,' and the suspect says I thought this was my friend's son and was lost."
That suspect, later identified as Fazio, got away but was later found and charged with kidnapping. The sheriff's office is still trying to figure out why Fazio would allegedly try to kidnap the child. They said he has no criminal record in the county.
But they're taking the opportunity to remind parents to keep a close eye on their children adding that it's hard to say - or think - what would have happened had the father not been there.
