Fresno police are still looking for the man who kidnapped a woman at knifepoint in broad daylight. It happened Tuesday afternoon in the parking lot of Fashion Fair mall in northeast Fresno. Police say the woman was parked in this lot on the south side of the mall, near Macy's.
A man armed with a knife got in her car and demanded money. When she said she didn't have any, he forced her to drive to a nearby ATM, where she withdrew cash. The brazen crime, unfortunately, doesn't shock many shoppers. "Because the economy and everything, it's going to get worse probably," said Phyllis Jones, who shops at the mall.
"I've been here in Fresno for a long time, when the economy changed everything slowed down, theft slowed down. With the economy getting worse, with the loss of jobs, I knew something like this was going to come back," said Lee Xiong, who shops at the mall.
The good news is, the woman was able to escape, unharmed.
As she was driving back to the mall after withdrawing money from the ATM, she got out of her car and ran for help.
Her kidnapper took her car, abandoned it across the street from the mall, and ran away with the money.
Those who work and shop at Fashion Fair Mall, say they're not going to live in fear, but they will be more cautious.
"Definitely my kids would not come by themselves; they'll have to have adult supervision. That's not something I'd want for my kids to happen to," said Xiong. "Getting this job, my husband says I'm either going to drop you off or you have to have somebody walk you out," said Tiffany Sawaske, who works at the mall.
Hours after the kidnapping, police received a tip, that the kidnapper could be hiding out in a house near Delmar and Ashlan in Fresno, which is about a couple miles away from the mall. Police wasted no time and surrounded the house.
"We did have a large perimeter in this area, but unfortunately that lead turned not to pan out," said Lt. Tom Rowe with the Fresno Police Department. Police say they don't know the name of the man they're looking for yet. They are working with mall security, looking at their surveillance video, to see if they can identify him and track him down.
The man that police are looking for is described as African American, about 6' 1", with a thin build, in his late teens to early 20's. He was last seen wearing a gray shirt, blue jeans, with green boxer shorts hanging out. If you have any information, you're asked to call Fresno Police.