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6-Year-Old Uses Smarts to Foil Kidnapping Attempt from Outside Home

Savanna Norman, of Portland, Wash., used the skills her mother taught her to dodge a kidnapper.

A 6-year-old Washington state girl is safe thanks to her street smarts — and her mother's sound advice — when two men tried to kidnap her in broad daylight from her own neighborhood.

Savanna Norman of Parkland, south of Tacoma, used the skills her mother taught her when a pair of men tried to grab her Wednesday afternoon as she crossed the street in front of her home.

"I looked both ways, and there was no one coming but … then I went halfway across the street, two guys came out of nowhere," Savanna told KOMO-TV, which first reported the attempted abduction. “They grabbed me.”

Savanna said she screamed, ran, kicked and punched — just as her mother instructed for such a scary situation.

Mom Amy Norman said she saw the attempted kidnapping from her front window, and dashed out the door to help her daughter.

Norman was shaken up by the incident but remains proud of her girl. “I’m bearing with it as normal, but it was very scary for all of us,” she told KOMO-TV.

Police ended up catching the suspect, local resident Jakeel Rashon Mason. He was booked into the Pierce County Jail for investigation of unlawful imprisonment, and is being held on $150,000 bail.

His first hearing is scheduled for May 8.

— Mel Bailey