Mom punches stranger in face after he grabs stroller, Oregon police say. ‘My baby!’

PORTLAND – A mother punched a man in the face after Oregon police say he took a stroller with her toddler seated inside.

The woman told police that as she gathered her things inside her home on Tuesday she realized her 23-month-old girl seated in a stroller was missing, the Portland Police Bureau said in an April 30 news release.

She rushed outside and spotted a man pushing the child in the stroller away from her home, the woman told police.

“I was just screaming, ‘My baby! My baby! My baby!’ ” the mother, Scottie Grimes, told KATU.

The woman said she caught up to the man, then “punched him in the face,” according to police.

“I don’t remember everything I said because I was in panic mode,” Grimes told KOIN. “But I do remember punching him in the face. And swinging the stroller around … and yelling this like, ‘I’m going to call the cops.’”

The man left the unharmed child and fled, according to police.

“That’s one of the more amazing things about this that she was able to get up there and physically intervene,” Portland Police Sgt. Kevin Allen told KGW. “That’s very dangerous but certainly as a parent I think any of us would do the same thing.”

Despite searching the area, officers could not find the man, police said. Officers did not find security footage showing the encounter either.

The man is described as being in his 50s, standing about 6 feet tall and weighing about 250 pounds, according to police.

At the time of the incident, police said, the man was wearing a black sweatshirt, black jeans and a “black beanie and a black medical type of mask.”

Anyone with information is asked to contact Detective Billy Winters at 503-823-0466, or email William.Winters@police.portlandoregon.gov.