Man tried to walk off with boy at Naples mall, police say

An East Naples man was arrested Saturday after police said he picked up a 6-year-old boy at Coastland Center mall and tried to walk off with him.

Donald Emerson Hayes, 46, faces a misdemeanor charge of battery and a felony charge of kidnapping — minor interference with custody, according to arrest records. He was booked at the Naples Jail Center and remained in custody Monday evening on $102,500 bail.

Police responded to a report of a suspicious man near the food court of the mall at 4:47 p.m. Saturday, according to a Naples police report.

More: Cape Coral man arrested on felony sexual assault involving family member

Witnesses told police they saw a man, later identified as Hayes, acting "tweaky" and said he was giving them "a weird vibe" but that they continued walking through the mall, the report stated.

They later heard the same man tell a family of four, "I will pay you $100.00 if you talk to me," according to the report. The witnesses said the man followed the family of four through the mall before approaching a young boy who was walking with the family, the report stated.

"Hayes then picked up the young boy up and then he began walking with the boy in his arms at a fast pace away from the young boy's family," the report stated. 

The witness told police that she could see "the faces on the young boy's family turn flush," according to the report.

More: Students sexually abused by peers face struggles in court

After walking about five store-lengths with the child in his arms, Hayes then dropped the boy but "continued to harass him and call him by his name and bribe him with money" before eventually walking away, the witness told police. 

The boy's mother told police that she was walking through the mall with her sister, her daughter and her 6-year-old son when an unknown male approached them. 

"(A)t first Hayes seemed friendly but he quickly made her feel uncomfortable," the mother told police.

The mother told police she tried to walk away from Hayes but that "he then dropped his bags and grabbed" her son and started to walk away from them, according to the report.

She told police that she called out to Hayes and that he put her son down after she told Hayes "NO," but that "he continued to lure him and bribe him with $100.00," the report stated.

The witnesses and the family later positively identified Hayes, according to the report. While speaking with Hayes, officers could detect "a strong smell of an alcoholic beverage emanating from him," the report stated.