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Suspect in Kidnapping Try Has History of Attempted Baby Snatchings: NYPD

By Gustavo Solis | April 21, 2014 1:35pm
 Police arrested Tara Anne McDonald, who they said tried to pry a baby from his stroller on Thursday.
Police arrested Tara Anne McDonald, who they said tried to pry a baby from his stroller on Thursday.
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NYPD

MANHATTAN — A woman arrested for trying to snatch an 8-month-old boy from his stroller in Chelsea had tried to take seven children in the last 20 years, police said.

Tara Anne McDonald, 46, of Jamaica, who served more than a year in prison for attempted kidnapping, allegedly tried to convince the latest nanny that the infant belonged to her before reaching into the boy’s stroller Thursday afternoon in front of 140 Eighth Ave., the NYPD said.

The child and his nanny were not injured during the kidnapping attempt, police said.

A pedestrian saw McDonald, of Queens, walking in Chelsea Friday and recognized her from a photograph that had been distributed to the media. The pedestrian contacted police, who found and arrested McDonald soon after, a department spokeswoman said.

She had not been arraigned as of Monday afternoon, prosecutors said. Sources said she was being held at Bellevue Hospital for evaluation.

McDonald’s rap sheet goes back to 1994 when she tried to kidnap a child in April, July and again in November, police said. She was arrested two more times for attempted kidnapping in June and November of 1997. She was also arrested in 2002 and 2010 for the same offense, according to the NYPD.

She was imprisoned for 16 months between 1998 and 2000 for attemped kidnapping, a spokeswoman at the New York State Department of Corrections said.

During one of the 1997 attempts she grabbed a girl from her father's hands, police said. Six of the seven attempts happened in Manhattan. The other was in Brooklyn, the spokeswoman said.