CHARLOTTE, NC -- A man attempted to take a 4-year-old boy from a club’s child care center while the boy’s father worked out in the club.
The incident took place last Wednesday at a Sports & Fitness Club in Charlotte, NC. The man allegedly walked into the child care center and told the boy to put his shoes on so that they could leave, according to two Charlotte TV reports. The man pretended to be the workout partner of the boy’s father.
The employee in the child care center did not recognize the man and told him the boy was staying put until his father arrived to sign him out, according to the reports. The boy allegedly told the employee that the man was not his father and that he did not know him.
Police were called about the incident, and an investigation is under way. Employees have been sorting through photos of all gym members, but so far, no one resembles the man who attempted to take the boy, according to one of the TV reports.
“We did our job. We’re happy that it was stopped,” Tonya Anderson, the club’s spokesperson, said in a statement to one of the TV stations. Officials at the club added that they are looking at ways to improve their system.