Great Neck, NY – “Mofsim after mofsim,” was the way 25 year old Shmuli Tuvel of Crown Heights described the miraculous return of his kidnapped sister in law, six month old Esti, abducted yesterday morning by a former maid from the home of his parents Rabbi Yitzchak and Tamar Chayempour in Great Neck.
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The Chayempours, who are shluchim in Great Neck and run a summer camp there, hired 53 year old Gloria Suarez for a temporary summer position. A native of Uruguay, Suarez’s duties included only cooking and cleaning, not babysitting, and the agency that made the placement had done background checks which showed no problems of any sort.
Suarez’s employment ended with the Chayempours this past Friday, but she repeatedly asked her former employers to let her stay on for just one more day, while she waited for her new apartment to be ready.
In retrospect, there were numerous signs that something was amiss, according to Tuvel. Suarez spoke frequently about how she had always wanted to have children of her own. She frequently offered to take the infant for a walk although babysitting was never part of her job and offered to buy formula for baby Esti after her termination last Friday. Suarez, who was planning to return to Uruguay in two weeks, had moved her belongings out of the Chayempour’s Great Neck home, but claimed she needed to stay with them because she didn’t have the key to her new apartment.
“She had lived in the same apartment for the past eight years,” said Tuvel in an exclusive interview with VIN News. “Why would she suddenly take a new apartment just days before she was due to leave the country?”
The drama began yesterday morning at approximately 9:30 AM, when after spending a sleepless night with the infant, Mrs. Chayempour went to take a nap. Seizing the opportunity, Suarez took the baby, a bottle of Cholov Yisroel baby formula, two bottles and left the house carrying the baby in her arms.
Twenty minutes later the miracles began to unfold.
While normally Rabbi Chayempour would not have been in Great Neck that time of day, he was returning from a bris when he saw Suarez walking down Middle Neck Road, with the baby in her arms. Questioning Suarez, she informed him that she was going to a nearby CVS.
Realizing that something was amiss, Rabbi Chayempour made a quick u-turn only to discover that Suarez was nowhere to be found.
Rabbi Chayempour searched for the pair for one hour with his three sons before contacting the Nassau County Police, who were reluctant to consider the case a kidnapping after such a short period of time.
Undaunted, the Chayempour family, along with volunteers rounded up on Facebook and via email, began to canvas the area, hoping that the baby toting Suarez, with her unique long, unkempt silvery hair had caught someone’s attention.
Thankfully she had and as the Chayempours managed to trace Suarez’s footstep, police joined in the search which led from a bus ride, to a local park, to a taxi ride and finally to a Roslyn train station.
Police found the pair at the train station, but Suarez who had attempted to disguise the baby’s appearance by dressing her as a boy in a blue outfit, whose long sleeves covered a very distinctive birthmark on the baby’s arm, insisted that the baby was hers. The Cholov Yisroel formula, with its Hebrew stickers removed was also found in Suarez’s possession.
Suarez refused to surrender the child to the authorities, but was subdued by police and placed under arrest. She will be arraigned today at the county courthouse in Hempstead.
“This was truly chasdei Hashem,” said Tuvel. “The first leads came in literally moments after my mother in law placed a call to the Rebbe’s Ohel.”
The Chayempours are extraordinarily grateful to have Esti back home just two and a half hours after her abduction.
“My in laws want this story to be publicized,” said Tuvel. “While my mother in law never used her maid as a babysitter, there are people who sometimes leave their kids home all day with the maid. People to be more aware of the dangers of leaving children with their cleaning help.”
According to Police, Suarez will be charged with second-degree kidnapping, resisting arrest, endangering the welfare of a minor and obstructing government administration.
B”H she was found so quickly!
We must thank Hashem farbrengen the baby back.
A wonderful miracle!
This should be a HUGE wakeup call to the countless Lakewood families who leave their infants and young children at home alone with the “cleaning lady”. ” i am just running to the store for a few minutes, moishe is sleeping upstairs”
“si-si”
i don’t understand why all of you think it’s crazy to have a cleaning woman keep an eye on the kids for a few minutes – as if a babysitter or any other worker is less of a risk. anybody can be crazy and do something horrendous, regardless of job title. this was just a miracle from hashem. that baby could have just as easily have been gone forever. you just have to daven that you never encounter such sick people.
you know what, this story does not mean that all non-jewish people can’t be trusted. 99% of them can be but there are so many that the 1% make up a big number.
what is most freightening about this story is that had she was going to take the child away to Uruguay where she was from. there she could have converted the child to christianity or sold her into slavery or prostitution G-d forbid. Thank G-d she is back with her parents and since she was so young will probably not be in any way negatively affected. Baruch Hashem.
Baruch Hashem what a NESS GADOL HAYA PO!!!!!!!
bottom line………you cant REALLY trust anyone,,,,except G-d……..,,yid or no yid. I dont care. NEVER NEVER leave your kids alone,
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What is most disturbing is that they didn’t contact the police for an hour and that the police did not jump on this right away – in the case of a BABY it is obviously a kidnapping!!
This story could have ended up in tragedy! Baruch HaShem that it did not! But wow! How scary, that somebody you trust to come into your home & help tend to it, could potentially end up a kidnapper!
I agree with a lot of the posting on here however, when I say that the person’s skin color is irrelevant. ANYONE you don’t really know could potentially be a threat.
Personally, I think I would have a *little* easier time trusting someone who is ALSO a mother as well. Usually, (not always- but usually), somebody who’s got kids at home of their own… isn’t going to try to steal yours too! (lol) And they also probably aren’t going to do anything that would land them in the slammer either, and away from their own children too boot! And I’m not talking about petty theft- but I mean, real serious crimes. Something that could cause *prison* time.
A fellow mother such as yourself, can usually be more trusted. But of course, in these days… who knows anymore?! People are crazy everywhere it seems like! Even in our own communities!
All we can do is pray that we’ll have the merit to garner HaShem’s protection over us always!
Not to criticize the father, but once he suspected something was amiss, why did he simply not hit the brakes,stop his car, get out, and take his daughter back Suarez?. Glad it worked out but that u-turn on Middle Neck Road could have turned in a different direction but for Chasdei Hashem.
Good job by the father, and G-d helped!
To some people money is more important than their kids. They have the spanish speaking maid take the kids off the bus. Feed them, bathe them and mommy comes home just to kiss them into bed. I feell so sorry for all those kids. They beg their parents to be their for them but they just get a prize instead. Your kids don’t need your gifts and nice big house! They need you!! And then there’s always that risks of having a goyta home alone such as the above or even feeding the kid nonkosher. Remember, our kids are our greatest treasure!!
So it IS proper to call Shomrim first! The police don’t want to be called so ‘early’. It is not a case ‘yet’. Someone please tell this to the NY Post.
To all those yelling about leaving children with cleaning help or non-Jewish babysitters: Did you read the story? The mother did not tell the woman to watch the child.
This isn’t a miracle. It’s the result of good police work
#35 , Was she from an agency? Was she legally in this country? Did she get a paycheck?
#30 , it was a miracle that the father spotted the kidnapper, & the police did not come into the picture until later.
why wasn’t there an AMBER ALERT sent out ??????
Mrs. Boro Parker, #19 you are mamash crazy. G-d looks after fools (you) & children (yours) so I guess you’ll be OK.
Don’t forget to phone occasionally when you come off the treadmill at the gym or while your nails are drying at the salon or while you’re waiting for dessert at a nice restaurant. Just in case the shiksa has fed your kids treife, taken them to church, or run off somewhere.