This will give any parent nightmares. A father awoke to the sound of his daughter crying at around 2:30 a.m. Thursday, December 15, only to find an intruder holding his 2-year-old in the living room of their Tempe, Arizona, apartment. The stranger’s pants were sagged enough to expose his buttocks, according to a police report.
The suspect, identified by police as Oren Aharon Cohen, allegedly told the dad, “I’m your friend,” before tossing the crying toddler onto the couch and attempting to flee.
As the child’s mother called 911, the father held the 34-year-old man down to stop him from fleeing. Cohen managed to escape briefly before the father chased him down. According to the police report, when authorities arrived at the residence, they used a stun gun on Cohen after he reportedly refused commands, The Washington Post reported.
The Israeli citizen, who is in the United States legally, was arrested on charges of second-degree burglary, aggravated assault and kidnapping.
Per the report, police located Cohen’s shoes, coat and passport in the little girl’s bedroom and discovered that he had used a bathroom and helped himself to orange juice from the refrigerator.
In his court appearance December 16, Cohen told the judge that he was drinking heavily with a female friend named in the complex and went outside to smoke a cigarette. “I guess I got blacked out,” he said. “I went to the wrong door and that’s why you guys charge me [with] burglary? For going to the wrong apartment?”
Cohen went on to claim “that’s when I saw this midget. It looks like a midget and I thought it’s [a] midget”
He also denied touching the girl inappropriately. “I would never do anything like that,” Cohen said. “My dad is a sex offender. I would never do anything even close to that.”
Cohen is in jail on $250,000 bond. He is scheduled to appear in court Thursday, December 22.
