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Hero Brother Grabs Keys From Driver Trying to Snatch Girl, 9: Prosecutors

By  Erica Demarest and Ed Komenda | June 23, 2015 8:21am | Updated on June 24, 2015 8:56am

 Salvador Govea, 21, snatched car keys from a man accused of trying to abduct his little sister. Govea blocked the man, 57-year-old Ancelmo Ortiz, until police arrived.
Salvador Govea, 21, snatched car keys from a man accused of trying to abduct his little sister. Govea blocked the man, 57-year-old Ancelmo Ortiz, until police arrived.
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DNAinfo/Ed Komenda

GARFIELD RIDGE — When Salvador Govea heard his mother scream that a strange man in a big van was trying to take his 9-year-old sister, he did the first thing that came to mind.

Govea, 21, ripped opened the driver’s side door, reached across the man’s chest and snatched the keys from the ignition.

“Called the cops right away,” Govea said Monday from his Garfield Ridge home.

The quick move led to the arrest of 57-year-old Ancelmo Ortiz, who appeared in bond court Monday on charges of child abduction/luring.

According to prosecutors and witnesses, the incident happened about 4 p.m. Saturday in the 5000 block of South La Crosse Avenue as the 9-year-old girl, an aspiring gymnast, and her 6-year-old sister practiced cartwheels outside their mother's house.

 Ancelmo Ortiz, 57, was charged with child abduction/luring.
Ancelmo Ortiz, 57, was charged with child abduction/luring.
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DNAinfo; Chicago Police Department

Mom Gina Govea, 42, said she briefly ducked inside because she was getting ready to go to Six Flags Great America and had left a hair straightener plugged into a wall.

That's when Ortiz parked his white 1994 Chevy G20 van in front of the house, rolled down the window and gestured for the 9-year-old girl to come closer, police and prosecutors said. According to court records, Ortiz repeatedly told the girl to get in the van so he could talk to her.

The girls were frightened and ran inside to tell their mother what happened, Assistant State's Attorney Lorraine Scaduto said during a bond hearing Monday. Neither the girls, their family nor their neighbors knew Ortiz.

Gina Govea rushed outside to find Ortiz on his knees in the back of the van, next to a mattress and blankets, she said. The mother started yelling at Ortiz, who didn't speak English, asking why he was there.

"He said, 'I went to the store and got me a coffee. While I'm drinking my coffee, I'm looking at your daughters,'" Gina Govea recalled Monday.

That's when her heart started pounding with rage, she said: "Oh my God. I wanted to beat the crap out of that guy."

Inside the house, Salvador Govea was getting ready to take his little sisters to a block party down the street. His cousin burst into the room, he said, and told him to get outside. Govea ran out the front door and found his mother screaming at the man.

She turned to her son, he said, and yelled, "He's trying to take your sister! He's trying to take your sister!"

By this time, Ortiz was moving back to the driver's seat, prosecutors said. So Salvador Govea snatched the keys and called police.

Ortiz apologized, saying, "I know I messed up," according to Salvador Govea, who grilled Ortiz on why he was was in the neighborhood peeping on little girls.

"He looked weird," Govea said. "I don't know if he was drunk or not because he was acting strange."

Ortiz, of the 5400 block of South Laramie Avenue, was charged with child abduction/luring. On Monday, Cook County Judge James Brown ordered him held in lieu of $250,000 bail. Authorities said this is his first arrest.

Gina Govea said she hasn't been able to sleep since the incident. She keeps running through her mind what could've happened if the girls hadn't come running in the house that afternoon.

“In the blink of an eye he could have taken my girls," she said, "and I would never have seen them again. He's locked up. ... But I'm not happy."

Gina Govea had a tough time calming down her 9-year-old daughter after Ortiz was taken away Saturday; the girl was so scared that she was shaking, her lips quivering. Govea promised to make sure the strange man never got of jail. She told her daughter how proud she was that the girl didn't get in the van.

“You deserve a great, big prize for that,” Gina Govea remembers saying.

Salvador Govea, who has a 2-year-old son, said his instincts took over Saturday when he grabbed the keys. He was in shock and said he's glad the girls' father, who was visiting family in Mexico, wasn't there.

“If my dad had been here, I would’ve felt sorry for the guy,” Govea said, adding that his father thanked him for handling things when they talked on the phone later that night.

“That’s what I’m here for,” Govea said. “We’re family.”

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