Police are investigating a bizarre incident in which a two-year-old boy was kidnapped from his Upper Dublin Township home and found alone and outside at a West Philadelphia intersection six hours later.
Pennsylvania State Police issued an Amber Alert around 10 p.m. last night for Tymire Dior Smith, 2, stating that he was abducted by three armed men who assaulted Smith’s father, snatched the child from his arms and fled in a stolen dark-colored Chrysler 300 with a partial Pennsylvania registration of HYJ-6836. According to investigators, the father was unable to identify the assailants.
Upper Dublin Deputy Chief Police Lee Benson said the alert was cancelled when Smith was found about six hours later by a Philadelphia police officer at the intersection of North 66th Street and Malvern Avenue in the Overbrook section of West Philadelphia. “He was actually located, basically, not on the street but maybe on a sidewalk outside at about four in the morning,” Benson said. “He was just left there. It’s pretty bizarre.”
Benson said that he’s not sure what led the officer to that location. “I don’t know the exact sequence of events – how the Philadelphia officer ended up there – but he did,” he said. “All that matters is that the child was recovered at that intersection.”
Smith was taken to the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia for a medical evaluation, where Benson said he was met by his mother and grandmother. The child appears to be uninjured.
Police in Upper Dublin and Philadelphia are working together to identify and arrest the three men who allegedly kidnapped the child. “We’re still working on that right now,” Benson said. “It’s still under investigation. It’s really great the child was recovered, but that’s only half of it. We’d like to find out who did it and why and try to make an arrest on that.”
A woman, 24-year-old Carmen Brady, was allegedly abducted from a home at that intersection last Wednesday by three armed men who witnesses said fled after stealing the family’s Buick Park Avenue. Investigators said they believed that incident to be drug-related, as the location is known to police for drug activity.
Three men were arrested in that case and Brady was found, but there is no word yet on whether the District Attorney has filed charges against the alleged abductors. Police have not said if the two kidnappings are related.
