The snatching occurred Monday when suspect Phillip Garcia allegedly grabbed the girl off an Albuquerque street and tossed her into his van. Fortunately for the 6-year-old, Diaz Chacon happened to be doing laundry at a relative's nearby and witnessed the whole thing.
"The way he grabbed her and threw her into the van, I knew it wasn't right," he told The Associated Press. "I knew I had to catch him. I had to get the girl back from him and take her home, take her back where she belongs."
'While his wife, Martha, called 911, he sprang into action - hopping behind the wheel of his pickup in hot pursuit through a maze of streets around a quiet trailer park.
After several minutes, Garcia crashed into a telephone pole and got out. It was only then that Diaz Chacon began to worry.
"When he got down, I was thinking, what if he has a gun," Diaz Chacon said.
But Garcia instead fled on foot, and Diaz Chacon went straight to the little girl and told her he would take her home. Aside from a few bruises, she was unhurt.
Garcia later returned to the wrecked van and was arrested. Cops found packing tape and a tie-down strap hidden under a rock nearby and similar binding implements in the vehicle.
"This little girl was very lucky," said Sgt. Tricia Hoffman. "We can only guess what would have happened to this child."
Diaz Chacon said he was proud to help. He said he had thought of his own daughters - one 7 years old and the other 5 months old - while giving chase and hopes someone would do the same for him."
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The story doesn't end there, with accolades and thank you's flooding in from all over the state, because at the center of this heartwarming and dramatic story is the fact that Diaz is an illegal alien. This tugged at my awareness of too-often making assumptions about others without knowing what is in their hearts.
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