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Boy, 6, Fights Off Attempted Kidnapping In Monrovia

MONROVIA (CBS) — A 6-year-old boy fought off an attempted kidnapping Friday afternoon in Monrovia.

Juan Fernandez, reporting for CBS2 and KCAL9, spoke to the boy's parents -- Dominic and Ashley Barrera -- and they told him their son, Jesse, was grabbed from behind in his backyard by an unknown adult male around 4 p.m.

The suspect put his hand over the boy's mouth and took him down the street -- kicking and screaming -- away from his home in the 2500 block of Graydon Avenue.

The parents told Fernandez that they taught their son to fight back in such a situation and he remembered what he was told.

Dominic Barrera said, "Someone came into our yard. And picked up our son...like a football. And then ran down the block and took him. My kid was kicking and biting and screaming. He dropped my son. And then he ran back here."

The boy's mother said she has long warned her son about such a possibility. "I've told him people will try to trick you. They might say something nice. But if anyone grabs you, you fight. You fight. You kick. You bite. You scream. You yell. You draw blood. If anyone tries to take you, they aren't doing anything nice. They're trying to hurt you."

Mrs Barrera wondered from time to time if she was doing the wrong thing putting possibly scary images in her son's head, "maybe I was putting too much fear in him," but choking back tears she said,  "it helped him today."

Sheriff's deputies brought in bloodhounds to try to pick up the man's trail.

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