WATCH ABOVE: Security video shows man rip iPad from a two-year-old’s hands, then push the boy down before running away. KPRC’s Mark Boyle reports.
TORONTO – A teenage thief who ripped an Apple iPad out of the arms of a two-year-old boy, and knocked him over in the process, has been arrested after his parents turned him in.
The incident occurred April 19 at a laundromat in Houston, Texas. A surveillance camera captured the moment a 16-year-old male walked up to two children and snatched the device. The toddler could be seen falling down as the teen made his getaway.
“They didn’t have to touch him. He’s two. Who steals from a two-year-old? Get a job,” said the boy’s anonymous mother in a KPRC report.
The Houston Police Department released the surveillance video Monday on YouTube.
The thief’s parents allegedly recognized their son in a news report on television and promptly brought him to police Tuesday evening to be arrested.
“I’ve chased a lot of crooks, but this is probably the biggest thug I’ve ever seen. To see some man knock a two-year-old child to the ground to take an iPad,” said Investigator Ken Nealy.
The toddler’s mom is thankful the teen was brought to justice and had a message for his mother.
“Tell her thank you. I appreciate it as a mother. I would do it,” she told an officer.
Other Houston residents, however, were fuming over the fact a toddler was robbed.
“You are disgusting to me! I find these people repulsive – I really do. It’s wrong in every way,” one angry woman told Mark Boyle in an interview. “I have no remorse for him. I don’t feel sorry for him.”
The iPad is being replaced by Ron Garrett, owner of dry cleaning service MW Cleaners, after learning of the story.
“We hope that this gift, this token gift, will remind people that even though bad things happen to you in life, there are people out there that are willing to help,” Garrett said.
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