A 10-year-old boy in Louisiana escaped after being kidnapped near his bus stop in New Orleans’ Algiers neighborhood last week, police said.
The incident happened just before 5 p.m. on Sept. 19 as the child was walking home, according to a spokesperson for the New Orleans Police Department, who spoke with PEOPLE.
The boy told police that two unknown men pulled out a gun, forced him into a van, and took him to an abandoned house nearby.
Inside the house, the boy said the men had a strange request.
“They were going to try to take a photo of me, like I don’t know, but when they tried to do that, that was when one of them left,” he explained in an interview with WVUE. “The other one said, ‘I’ll be right back.'”
The boy also noticed another child about his age inside the house. When one of the kidnappers left, both boys decided it was the right time to try to escape.
“They [the men] locked the door, so they made sure the door was locked, and that was when we tried to kick the door, and I kicked the door, and that’s when I had kicked the door down, and I had ran,” the boy told WVUE.
Video shows the boy breaking free and running into the arms of his father, who had been searching the neighborhood.
Later, the boy discovered his clothes and backpack scattered across the street from his home.
His mother told WSAZ that the kidnappers had ordered him to strip down to his underwear, which is what he was wearing when he ran to safety.
No arrests have been made.
NOPD Sgt. Barry Fletcher told PEOPLE the case is being investigated as an aggravated kidnapping. Anyone with information is asked to contact NOPD Fourth District detectives at 504-658-6040.
Tips can also be submitted anonymously to Crimestoppers of Greater New Orleans by calling 504-822-1111 or sending information online.
