An Amber Alert has been issued after a 6-year-old boy was allegedly abducted by his father Monday morning, according to KTLA sister station KTXL in Sacramento.
Jayce Cosso was taken from his home by 41-year-old John Cosso, Modesto police said.
The boy’s mother, Kimberly Valente, told KTXL a man posing as a utility worker knocked on her door on Poinsettia Drive early Monday morning.
“Had a badge, a fake uniform and everything, but it didn’t feel right,” Valente said. “He felt sketchy.”
Valente said she asked him to leave, but in the corner of her eye she saw her son’s father’s car.
Then there was another noise at the door, “like banging and banging and banging and banging, and they all came in,” Valente said. “They all charged in. They pepper sprayed my (17-year-old) son, pepper sprayed my sister.”
According to investigators, three men and three woman were involved in the kidnapping.
Valente said she ran to Jayce, took him in her arms and headed to the safety of her car.
“Locked myself in my car, ’cause mentally I prepared for this,” she said. “Rolled up the windows and backed up and there was a car here.”
With the car blocking her in, she said Cosso found a metal toolbox and, along with his older son and another man, broke into the car.
“I don’t know, I feel like I couldn’t get out,” Valente said. “I probably could have run people over.”
Trapped, Valente said she and the boy could only scream.
Valente’s father, Mike, says his grandson begged Cosso not to take him.
“He was crying, saying, ‘Dad, I don’t want to go with you,’ ” Mike Valente said. “He doesn’t want to be with his father.”
The boys mother said she was holding on to him, and isn’t sure exactly who it was who got a hold of him. She’s been fighting to find him ever since.
The family said they’re unsure of Cosso’s intentions. “I don’t think he’s gonna hurt Jayce,” Mike Valente said. “I don’t think he’s that stupid.”
Police believe Cosso and the boy are traveling in a 2012 black Ford Fusion with California license plate number 8BDY654.
Officials describe Cosso as a white man who is 5 feet 11 inches tall and weighs around 190 pounds with a shaved head and face tattoos. According to Valente there are three tattoos on his face, including one reading “Om” at the center of his forehead.
Jayce is about 2 feet 6 inches tall and weighs around 35 pounds with brown hair and eyes, authorities said. He was last seen wearing a black Transformers T-shirt and green camouflage shorts.
Anyone with information on their whereabouts can contact Crime Stoppers at 209-521-4636.