CCTV video shows how toddler was snatched

MANILA, Philippines - A surveillance camera video, obtained by The STAR, shows how a toddler was led away from his neighborhood in Quezon City Tuesday morning.

Lovelio Mendoza, one year and seven months old, walked several blocks from the store where his mother, Winnefer Batula, was buying cell phone load in Barangay San Antonio, according to the footage taken by a closed-circuit television camera installed at one of the houses the boy had passed.

The video showed an unidentified man in a red jersey, holding a small basin with empty plastic bottles, periodically jiggling the basin to attract the boy’s attention and make the boy follow him.

The man walked ahead of the boy but always only about a meter ahead. He would occasionally step back and usher the boy in his direction if the toddler was distracted by other things on the road.

There was never an instance when the stranger forced the boy and actually snatched him.

Some residents saw the two boarding a tricycle several blocks away from the store. The boy remains missing.