1-year-old found safe in Philadelphia after South Jersey kidnapping scare
Hakeem Hintzen was reunited with his mother Monday night in Philadelphia. The 16-year-old girl accused of kidnapping him remains at large.
A 1-year-old boy was safely reunited with his mother Monday night in Philadelphia after being kidnapped by a 16-year-old girl on Saturday in South Jersey, authorities said.
Akera Johns, the teen girl, remains at large and faces a kidnapping charge, authorities said.
On Saturday, Johns took Hakeem Hintzen from his mother — initially with the mother’s permission — in Vineland, Cumberland County, and then notified the mother she wasn’t going to return the child, said Robert Clark, supervisory deputy U.S. Marshal for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.
The teen girl and the boy were seen Monday morning in Philadelphia in the area of 32nd Street and Susquehanna Avenue, and then later in Center City.
Johns, evidently aware that she had become the focus of a law-enforcement search, contacted a third party to hand over the child, Clark said. The third party, who asked to remain anonymous, contacted the boy’s family, who then contacted law enforcement, Clark said. Arrangements were made to have the boy’s mother pick up her son, who apparently was not harmed, from the headquarters of the Philadelphia Police Department at 400 N. Broad St.
Clark said the teen girl is believed to still be in Philadelphia.