Earlier this month, Thomas Gallegos helped a family in Sterling, Colorado install a washer and dryer, authorities say. Days later, he returned in the middle of the night wearing a clown mask and tried to kidnap an 8-year-old girl from her bedroom, according to court documents. Authorities say the 56-year-old blindfolded the girl after he broke in around 1:30am on Oct. 15, but she woke up and fought back, NBC News reports. Police say the suspect knocked the girl unconscious and fled, leaving the mask and a pair of gloves behind. Doctors treated the girl for cuts and bruises.
Gallego was arrested Saturday and faces charges including assault, attempted kidnapping, burglary, and child abuse, 9News reports. Police say he took the girl's phone, which was dumped near Interstate 76 west of Sterling, reports CBS News. Location data from the phone helped identify Gallegos as a suspect. According to court documents, Gallegos' wife told investigators that he denied the allegations, but she identified him as the suspect seen in surveillance video from an alley near the home, and said the cloth clown mask he was holding in the video belonged to their grandson, NBC News reports. (More kidnapping stories.)
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