KEY POINTS

  • Cody Byrd stopped a man from kidnapping a young girl, 8
  • The suspect, Timothy Fry tried to grab the girl after she got out of the toilet
  • Byrd and the girl's mother found Fry suspicious
  • Byrd took photos of the man and his vehicle
  • Byrd was given free breakfast from Biscuitville as a reward

A young man stopped an attempted kidnapping of an 8-year-old girl in a North Carolina restaurant.

A&T University graduate student Cody Byrd was in Biscuitville in Greensboro when the incident happened.

On that same day, Heather Owen and her 8-year-old daughter were also dining at the restaurant when, as a habit, the young girl went to the bathroom before the food was served, Fox 31 reported.

Owen noticed a man sitting next to them who seemed to be watching her daughter and when the man got up and walked toward the bathroom, Owen moved to stand between the table and the bathroom to keep an eye on the bathroom door.

"I was just kind of leaning like this, just to kind of peek around the corner at her," she said.

"I saw him standing against the wall and you don't want to pre-judge anybody 'cause that happens a lot nowadays; I was like, 'Well, maybe he really is going to use the bathroom.'" Byrd also noticed the man’s behavior and found it suspicious so he got up and went around the corner.

"It’s the kind of vibe he was putting off; the fact that when I came in, he was just staring at the girl and he was just so focused on her,” Byrd, a computer science student said.

“And then once he got up to go to the bathroom right out there [where] she went, that's when I was like, 'Okay, I'm already not feeling right about this.'" Owen said that just as her daughter came out of the bathroom, the man tried to grab her and Byrd immediately apprehended him.

The suspect fled the scene but not before Byrd managed to take a picture of him and his truck, including the license plate which gave the authorities an easier time capturing him.

The suspect, Timothy Fry, admitted that he found the young girl sexually attractive.

For his help, Byrd was praised as a hero and representatives of Biscuitville gave him a Good Citizen Award and one year's worth of free breakfast.

"I just really want Cody to be sure that he realizes how appreciative we are as a brand and that we certainly do recognize what he did and it's no small thing," Kristie Mitchell, vice president of brand and marketing at Biscuitville, said.

"And so, it was worth the time to stop just to say thank you to him and to be extremely grateful for Cody."

Pedophile
Gettyimages/PHILIPPE HUGUEN