Shabbat afternoon, around 3 p.m., Borough Park neighborhood: Two four-year-old cousins were playing in the yard of their grandparents' house located at 14th Avenue and 51st Street, when an unidentified woman entered the yard and began swinging them on a swing. When asked by one of the neighbors, the woman claimed to be a babysitter who had been hired to watch over the two children. The two children do not live in New York, and had arrived at their grandparents' house for Passover.
One of the mothers noticed through the window that the woman was taking the children out of the yard - and hurried out. But when she reached the yard, the woman had already disappeared along with the children.
The shocked parents immediately contacted members of the "Guardians" organization, who immediately began scanning the security cameras in the area.
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""We didn't even know which direction she was heading," says Motti Katz, Borough Park's security coordinator. "We started scanning the cameras covering 12th and 14th Avenues at the same time, and at the same time we sent our people along the avenues and looked for security cameras that might have captured the woman and the children. Until we found a picture of her with the children between 15th Avenue and 51st Street.".
At 5:45 PM, one of the "guards" noticed the woman and children at 15th Avenue and 52nd Street. The police were immediately called to the scene and rescued the children from the woman.
The New York Police Department said: "Keren Cohen, a 46-year-old resident of Borough Park, is in custody for trespassing and endangering the safety of children. The children were checked by rescue and released.".
Police also said that the woman claims she took the children "to play in the park.".
