ALBUQUERQUE — The pair of 911 calls came in quick succession from a New Mexico mobile home park.
On one, a frantic 12-year-old says her little sister is missing. On the other is the wife of the man who would be credited with saving the 6-year-old from every parent’s nightmare.
“We are outside of my mom’s house here,” Martha Diaz told the dispatcher. “We heard a man going, ‘Hey, hey let her go. Let her go.’ So we turn around . . .
“The man came running to us and said, ‘They stole a little girl.’ ”
Police said Phillip Garcia, 29, had snatched the girl moments earlier Monday afternoon in Albuquerque, taking her away in a blue van. Diaz’s husband, Antonio Diaz Chacon, gave chase.
Garcia tried to lose him but ended up crashing into a telephone pole a few miles away, police said.
Garcia fled on foot, and Diaz Chacon grabbed the girl and took her home, police said. Garcia then returned to his wrecked van and took off but was later captured by police, authorities said.
Hidden under a rock just 25 feet from the van, officers found packing tape and tie-down strap.
Inside the impounded van were tostadas, a glove, a Leatherman tool, a black satchel and orange strapping similar to the strap found hidden under the rock, police said.
“This little girl was very lucky,” police Sgt. Tricia Hoffman said.
“If it wasn’t for him, this could have been very bad,” Hoffman said, referring to Diaz Chacon.
Garcia was charged with kidnapping, child abuse and tampering with evidence. Hoffman said Garcia is from Albuquerque, but she was unsure whether he had a criminal record.
The girl told police she had gone to a neighbor’s to pick up some tostadas and was walking home when the van stopped and the man grabbed her.
The girl was grabbed with such force, police said, that bruising had already begun to appear on her chest and back Monday evening. The girl told police the man put his hand over her mouth and she bit him.
She said the man shoved her on the floorboard to keep her head under the window view, according to the police report.
During her interview, police said, the girl was concerned that she was unable to bring the tostadas home because she had left them in the van.
