Galway mother's warning after 'creep' grabs four-year-old son at bus stop
This has not only shaken Audrey to her core as a parent but it has also affected her son terribly who keeps asking ‘is the bad guy coming to get me’
A Galway mother has issued a warning to other parents to hold onto their children tight while in public after a random man grabbed her four-year-old son at a busy bus stop this week.
The frightening incident took place on the Monivea Road in Ballybrit around 2pm on Tuesday which Audrey Cronin says could have been “a parent’s worst nightmare come true” had she not been standing beside and holding onto her son Nathan when the man grabbed his pre-school bag strap and tried to pull him away.
The 43-year-old mam from Ballybane was waiting for the bus home after a day of shopping at Briarhill Shopping Centre with her little boy when “this creep grabbed Nathan out of nowhere”.
And now she says her son is terrified to even go to sleep asking every night since if “the bad guy is coming to get me”.
She told Galway Live: “When I first got to the bus stop, this man mumbled asking if the bus went to the city centre. He kept walking up and down the road and then started to get closer to us. No matter how much we moved, he was now starting to follow us.”
Once close enough, the man in question sprung forward and grabbed Nathan, holding on to his little backpack strap trying to pull him away from Audrey.
Thankfully she was positioned close enough to her son and was already holding onto him fearing that something was not right about the situation before the incident happened.
She said: “Once I pulled my son in close to me, the man immediately let go of the strap but continued to hang around the area and near us after. It all happened so fast.
“I rang the gardai immediately, giving my name and address and told them I wanted to give a statement at the house.”
As expected, this has not only shaken Audrey to her core as a parent but it has also affected her son terribly.
She continued: “I wanted Nathan to be here when they took the statement. Because any noise he has heard since the incident he keeps asking me ‘is the bad guy coming to take me?’.
Galway Live has contacted gardai for comment but understands gardai took a statement from Audrey at her house on Wednesday.